It's Our Turn to Save You
by Xcalated
Summary: After clashing with Othinus in the Omega World, Kamijou Touma was glad to be able to return back to his original world. Afterwards, Touma thinks back to the smiles that everyone held back in the Omega World. Racked with guilt as he lives with the knowledge that he took that happiness away, the hero is the one that needs to be saved. A story exploring Kamijou Touma's relationships.
1. Chapter 1

So the idea for this story had been sitting in the back of my mind for a while now after reading NT9 a while back. That novel just made me feel all sorts of sorry for Touma and it almost made me cry. But anyway, one of the main points that I saw in that volume was about how little Touma valued himself over others. It went as far to the point that in order to preserve their happiness, he would kill himself to do so. But one of the arguments that the Will used to comfort Touma was that if everyone knew that they had to sacrifice Touma to achieve that happiness, they would have rejected it and start running towards him to save him. I was sad that that was never brought up again after NT9 because Touma jumped straight into fighting everyone in NT10. So I thought I'd make this fic to try display the thoughts of Kamijou Touma's friends and allies and what they think about him. I'd also like to say that reading RakuKonpaku's story "The Hall of Valhalla" gave me a little push to get this story out.

So anyways, here's my fic and I hope you guys enjoy it. I guess I should note that it starts right after NT10.

Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index

* * *

Touma laid back and sighed in content after all of the events that had just occurred.

He was currently resting in his usual hospital bed that seemed like a second home to him. His body was all banged up and covered in bandages in order to nurse all the wounds he had sustained. But how did he gain these wounds you ask? He had gained those wounds from taking on the whole world in order to protect the smile of a single girl. That girl being Magic God Othinus.

Othinus was the leader of the terrorist organization GREMLIN. After achieving her objective of obtaining the Lance of Gungnir, she was the one that had destroyed the world. She was the one that had put him through many hells in an effort to break him to get rid of Imagine Breaker. While suffering through and enduring everything Othinus had thrown at him, she had almost broken the boy after she introduced the perfect Omega World to the boy who held a desire to protect everyone's happiness. Touma rejected that world and stood before Othinus to challenge her. He had fought her and died thousands of times. But it was through that experience and time he spent fighting with Othinus that he came to an understanding with her. It was through that understanding that had moved him to fight the world. He had vowed to save her.

After fighting through the world in Denmark, it had seemed that Othinus disappeared right in his arms. Fortunately(ironically for him), it was revealed that Othinus had survived, albeit in a new 15 centimeter form. Everything seemed to have ended well.

Othinus was supposed to be punished by the world. But a problem popped up as Othinus had appeared and shown herself in her new 15 centimeter form. Due to her new size, there was no way for the world to put her in any normal prison. So she had revealed to Touma that her punishment was changed and it was made so that she had stay by Touma's side and watch the happiness of the world that she had tried to destroyed fly by her. In a way, it was a fitting punishment.

Touma frowned suddenly though. _Watch the happiness of the world go by huh?_

Those words resounded in Touma. His thoughts flashed back to the Omega World that Othinus had shown him. In that world, he was forced to watch and observe a world of happiness that existed because Touma had no place in it. His very presence would taint that world and ruin their happiness. Even if that world had been a fake that Othinus had made in order to subdue him, the people in there were still real. A guilt was still buried in his heart that had formed after he brought down that world. In the current world, Kamijou Touma had taken away those smiles that they held. He felt no comfort from what he had done.

 _I took away all of their happiness._

Even at this moment, he still had no idea why Othinus had ceded the world to him. She could have kept that world of happiness. What value was his own life over the happiness of others? But even then, he realized it was his own fault why things were the way they were. After all, he was the one that made the decision to confront her that led up to this point.

His thoughts turned back to the conversation that he had with the Will of the Misaka Network. She was one of the few remnants from the original world that was with him in the Omega world. She was the one that convinced him that it was alright to be selfish in that world. But a thought still gnawed at him. In that world, the Will had told him that the reason Othinus had cheated was because the people in that world did not know they were sacrificing Touma for their happiness. But something about that argument was bothering Touma. A question popped up in his mind.

 _Do people really care enough for me that they would sacrifice their happiness for me?_

Touma pondered that question. In a deep part of his mind, Touma felt in all honesty that people would not do something like that for him if they knew that their happiness was on the line. That's why he made the choice for them when he had resolved to killed himself before the Will had stopped him. He cherished his bonds that he had with everyone, he sincerely did. He had made many precious memories with everyone for the current Kamijou Touma that had filled the void of the lost memories from the previous Kamijou Touma. And as he had said to the Will, he had fun with every single one of them. But Touma could not believe that something like their happiness was something they would willingly give up for the life of one high school boy.

But more often than not, he felt that people really only valued him highly just because he held Imagine Breaker in his right hand. Kamijou Touma had been brought in and used by many organizations and people. It's not like Touma had any objections to being used though. He even had a conflict with Leivinia Birdway over this exact issue. He was willing to be a pawn to be used in order to solve a conflict as long as it let him save people. And that was as far as it went. These people and organizations had gotten used to his typical mannerisms and just assumed that Kamijou Touma would of course come to save the day without asking for thanks or anything in return.

So in the end, Kamijou Touma had assumed that if he was to be used as an instrument in order to bring about good. Then what had he just done? He had said this to the Will back in the Omega World. He couldn't bare to see the people of this world with the thought knowing that he had basically destroyed all of their happiness and they were unaware of it. His heart bled sadly over this.

His thoughts were interrupted as suddenly he could hear the door to his hospital room open. Touma wasn't really expecting anyone to else to come visit him and so he peaked his head forward to see who had just come in.

As he looked over the form at the door, he saw that it was a familiar looking girl with short tea colored hair and a heart pendant around her neck. This person was also adorned in a Tokiwadai uniform.

"Misaka.. Imouto?" Touma said.

The girl had approached him and appeared right by his bedside. She leaned over him in front of his face and smirked. "Not exactly /return. I'm just borrowing this girl for the time being /return. I had to use her body just so I could talk to you /return" She closed her eyes. "Nice to see you again in this world Kamijou-chan /return." The girl said with a smile on her face that was usually uncharacteristic of the clone.

The way this girl was talking and her personality seemed very familiar to Touma. As he pieced together the pieces, realization dawned on him "Huh, wait, it's you...!" Touma said with a shocked look on his face. The person that was currently inhabiting the body of the 10032nd clone of Misaka Mikoto was indeed the Will of the Misaka Network.

The Will beamed at Touma's recognition of her. "Yup /return! Glad to see that you still remember me /return! Some interesting things have happened since then huh /escape? I was honestly surprised with the big reveal that you gave everyone when you returned to this world /return. Vowing to save the person that put you through all of that suffering huh /escape? Even going as far as to take on the whole world for her /return. It seems that I still can't underestimate your ability to turn your greatest enemies into allies /return. But sometimes I wonder how it feels to be the heroine that you save /return." The Will said in an enthusiastic matter that was the same that she had showed him in the Omega world.

Touma was a little bit taken back at the girl in front of him. After staring at her for a bit, Touma got his bearings again and finally responded. "I'm glad to see that you're still around." Touma said from the bottom of his heart with a smile. "It seems that you still remember what happened in the other world so you're still the same person from back then."

"I told you in the other world, didn't I /escape? When we would come back to this world, I promised that I would be by your side when we returned /return. I can't do that if I would have forgotten /return!"

Touma smiled at her familiar sense of enthusiasm and he himself felt a sense of comfort wash over him as the girl that was with him in his darkest hour in the Omega World was there right beside him. "I'm happy that I got to see you again, I never got to thank you for being there for me."

"It was no problem Kamijou-chan /return." The Will said. "I'm glad that you were able to come back to this world /return. If you hadn't I would have been very sad /return."

"So this time you took Misaka Imouto's body this time huh?"

"Being a thought entity of a network, it feels great being able to be in a body and move around /return." She said as she flexed her body.

Suddenly, the Will's expression looked serious as she took a look over Touma. "But /backspace, most of all, I wanted to check up on you after everything that happened /return."

"Check up on me?" Touma questioned. It was not as if it was uncommon for him to have visitors when he was in the hospital. "Well as you can see, I think I'm fine... kind of. After all that fighting I did, I guess I can say that my body is as fine as it can get after everything I went through and all the damage I took. It's not uncommon for me to be in the hospital."

"That's not what I meant /return." She said as the Will looked at him with a concerned look. "A bit before that /return. Are you alright now after everything that happened in that world /escape?."

"Yes, I think I'm fine." Touma said. "Me and Othinus fought and I realized that putting me through those worlds was a way for her to show what she went through" Touma explained. "She just wanted someone else to know what she went through and it helped for us to establish a mutual understanding with each other."

"That's also not what I meant /return." The Will said. Touma was now getting confused.

The Will paused for a moment.

"I meant, are you fine now being back in the original world after seeing a glimpse in the Omega World /escape?"

Touma suddenly frowned after she said that. He stayed silent for a bit before responding. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I mean /return." The Will said. "You even poured out all of your feelings to me back then in that world detailing your feelings /return."

Touma flinched and froze. He said nothing in response to her. Touma knew what she was trying to infer. Touma had literally just been thinking over exactly what she was implying but he couldn't bring himself to say to her what he thought of. A cold sweat washed over him.

"If I have to explain it out loud, I will /return." The Will sighed.

"You're still torn up on the inside over taking away the happiness of the others in the Omega World aren't you /escape?"

Silence still loomed in the air but the Will took his silence as a confirmation of her statement.

"I know you very well Kamijou-chan /return. That's why I came here expecting something like this." The Will said as she crossed her arms.

"I know that I was partly responsible for influencing your decision /return. That's why I said back there that I'll be there to comfort you and always stick by your side when we returned /return." The Will said. "But /backspace, didn't I tell you that you should tell everyone about what you saw in the Omega World if you wanted to ease your worries /escape?"

Touma stayed in silence for a little while until he finally responded while still frowning. "That's precisely why I haven't told them yet. I'm afraid of how they'll take it."

"Didn't I tell you /escape? I'm pretty sure that they'll forgive you /return. Because you are a precious person to them and they will accept your apology /return."

"I don't know about that..."

"Hmm /escape? What do you mean /escape?"

Touma let out a long sigh. "I don't know if I'd actually be considered as a precious person to any of them. I doubt that I hold any big importance in their lives out of all of the bonds that each one of them possess with many other people that they would consider close to them. I'm pretty sure that most don't think of me to be anything more than the boy who holds Imagine Breaker. If all of them knew exactly how perfect that world was, I don't know if they'll accept that I took away everyone's happiness of the low cost of my life."

A slap resounded in the air that echoed in the room.

Looking closely at the situation, Touma's head was knocked a little to the side with a red mark present on his face. The girl in the room had her arm extended with her hand formed in a tight palm.

Touma recovered from the slap and turned back to her with a confused look on his face.

"Sorry, I just felt like I needed to do that /return." The Will said as she was shaking her hand out. The slap had stung her as much as it stung Touma with how hard she hit.

The Will sighed. "It seems like you don't learn, don't you /escape? Just when I thought I had gotten through to you back then /return."

The body of Misaka #10032 started walking out of the room and Touma watched as she left. Just before she went out the door, the Will stopped and turned back. "You value yourself too little Kamijou-chan /return. I wasn't lying back then when I said that people would flock over to you to protect your smile /return. Even if you don't believe me, I'll show you exactly just how wrong you are /return."

She left Touma alone in the room for him to ponder in his thoughts about what she just said.

A wave of sadness had overtaken her when she had listened to Touma talk in a self-deprecating about himself and her emotions had flared up. The energy from her emotions had manifested into her hand and before she knew it, she released onto his face.

It seemed like her intentions back in that world had failed. The whole reason she went through trying to convince Kamijou Touma to be selfish, she was hoping that he would start placing more value on himself over others. She held the key the whole time that would move Kamijou Touma to face Othinus. She could have told him that Othinus was affecting her every time she remade the world and tinkering with the lives of the Sisters. She could have showed him the voice files of all of his friends and told him that they were being treated as false. Either of those would have convinced him to make his move against Othinus, but it would have still been for the sake of others.

But the thing that irked her the most was that Touma genuinely believed that he was not important to other people.

 _I need to get him realize just truly how much he affects the people around him._ The Will thought to herself. She needed to show him right to his face just how other people really valued him.

The Will smiled. She didn't have to look far to find people that had been affected by the boy named Kamijou Touma. In fact, she knew a certain #1 Esper that was close to the clones that she could easily find.

* * *

Next Chapter: Accelerator


	2. Accelerator

**Here's the second chapter of this installment. Since I have two stories up I decided that I'll alternate between making chapters between the two so expect a chapter for my other story, A Certain Honey Scent, to come first and then this one and so on and so forth.**

 **Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this one.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index**

* * *

Accelerator was laying down on the couch inside of Yomikawa Aiho's apartment with his eyes closed.

He felt like he needed a rest after going halfway around the world to Denmark in pursuit of a certain boy named Kamijou Touma.

Just some time ago, he had received an email from Academy City that was sent out to all Level 5s. Inside the email was a message attached that said _Requesting the death of Magic God Othinus and Kamijou Touma who is traveling with her._

Mixed feelings coursed through his body as soon as he read that message. It was no surprise to him that Academy City was trying to mobilize its Level 5s in an effort to stop the leader of the organization called GREMLIN that had been terrorizing the world. But what the thing that surprised him the most was the name listed after hers that was also being called on for death.

 _What is that fucking hero doing now?_ Was the question he asked himself. He was no stranger to the boys' deeds and actions, but something must have happened if Academy City was listing him for death now. He had to go check what was happening and scope out the situation for himself. But not only that, he had an underlying reason why he wanted to be the first one to reach him.

And so, Accelerator had confronted the boy in Denmark along with the Magic God. They had battled it out again for the third time and Kamijou Touma had won while he had lost.

"I wouldn't exactly say that you lost /return."

Accelerator opened his eyes and turned his head to the source of the sudden voice. He looked over and saw that sitting on the other couch was Last Order. But Accelerator noticed something off with her tone of speech. With the usual clones, they talked in a monotone voice. With Last Order, she expressed a childish demeanor. This girl had an unusually happy tone that he was familiar with. It seems like the Will of the Misaka Network had taken over Last Order's body again.

"What are you doing here?" Accelerator said as he lifted his body up from the couch.

"To finish your thought, I believe I explained back in Denmark your true intentions you had for confronting Kamijou-chan /return." The Will said ignoring Accelerator's question.

"I don't believe I confirmed anything about what you said about me being true at all." Accelerator refuted.

"Ah but /backspace, you never denied that what I said was false /return."

"Tch. You're annoying with your technical details." Accelerator clicked his tongue. And yet, he still did not deny anything.

"Aww come on /return. I thought that it was very nice and thoughtful of you that you were going to those far of lengths to try to protect Kamijou-chan."

"Protect him? I was just following Academy City's orders. I wanted to see for myself what the hell kind of ridiculous reason he had to protect a global terrorist and knock some sense back into him. The Hero always seems to get caught up in all of these sorts of ridiculous situations."

"Don't act all so tsundere for Kamijou-chan Accelerator /return. I believe that spot is taken up by the original Misaka /return." The Will teased.

"Who the hell are you calling a tsundere?!" Accelerator yelled.

"You /return. Just admit it, he was the one that changed your worldview and the one you looked up to for a while /return. I think deep down you really want to be his friend /return."

"Like hell I'd want to be friends with someone like him. Besides, that hero already has his own world that he wants to protect and I've got mine."

"Oh really /escape? Are you two really that far apart /escape?" She formed a smirk on her face

The Will in Last Order's body stood up and reached for a device that was sitting on the table. Accelerator watched her as she did and saw that she had picked up his cellphone that he left on the table.

"If I recall correctly, didn't you say that you would protect the people that were in your cellphone's memory /escape?" The Will said as she opened his phone with her smirk still present on her face.

"Tch, yeah, so what?"

"Let's take a look at your cellphone's contacts /return. If we scroll through them, we'll find a contact labeled 'Kamijou Touma' won't we /escape?" She turned the phone around and pointed i at Accelerator. Sure enough, a contact highlighted 'Kamijou Touma' was on the screen.

"I believe you know what I'm implying /return." She said in a teasing tone.

"Grrrrr." Accelerator growled at her before grabbing the phone out of her hand and snapping shut and putting it back into his pocket.

As he looked back at the Will, he saw that her face adopted a more serious expression "In any case, however you feel about him, I have a huge favor to ask /return."

"What makes you think I'll help?" What was her reason for even being here? She was getting on his nerves with all of her teasing.

Her face suddenly grew somber at his response. "Please, I know you're a good person Accelerator and I really need your help. /return. This involves the boy named Kamijou Touma /return." She looked at him with pleading eyes.

 _The hero?_ Accelerator thought in surprise as she mentioned that boy's name. If her she was pleading with him and it was involving that boy...

Accelerator sighed. "What the fuck do you want then?"

* * *

Kamijou Touma still layed in his hospital bed. After going through what he did, it didn't seem like he was going to be out of the hospital any time soon despite his freakish recovery time.

A couple of knocks on the door to his room suddenly resounded that indicated that someone was coming in.

As the boy sat up and looked over to see who had entered, a small form came at him with lightning speed and tackled him right in his stomach, sending him right back down on the bed while in pain

"Misaka is happy to see the savior again and that he is alright! says Misaka as Misaka jumps into his stomach to show her affection."

Touma opened his eyes and lifted his head up to see the mini-Misaka known as Last Order on his stomach looking up at him with her usual bright childish smile.

Another form entered his peripheral vision as he had walked in just right behind her and now stood right on his bedside.

Touma turned his head from Last Order to the other person in the room. His face paled and gulped as he saw the #1 Esper again right in front of him.

The last time Touma had seen Accelerator was back in Denmark where they fought again as he was trying to protect Othinus. He didn't know how to react to seeing him again right after what they just went through. Was he here to finish the job or something?

While Accelerator carried on his usual expression that looked like he was scowling, it didn't look like he was giving off any feeling of hostility from him.

Noticing that Touma was panicking, Accelerator sighed.

"Calm down you fucking hero."

"Huh?" Touma replied confused.

"Don't think I'm here to kill you. I'm not about to make a bloody scene in front of her." Accelerator said as he pointed at Last Order.

He thought back to what had brought him here.

* * *

Accelerator had obliged to listen to the Will's favor she wanted to ask of him. The Will began explaining the whole situation regarding the boy named Kamijou Touma. As she was talking and explaining the whole time, Accelerator's expression gradually started softening up as he listened. The moment that she finished talking, Accelerator accepted the request with no hesitation.

The Will smiled at him. "As I said before, you are a good person Accelerator /return."

"Just because I'm doing this doesn't make me a good person."

"Even so, it's important to me /return. Deep down, I know you care for him as well /return."

"Now listen here-" "Good luck Accelerator /return!" The Will said with one last enthusiastic expression as she left Last Order's body.

Last Order's body drooped over. After a brief moment, Last Order then started lifting her head up slowly while rubbing her eyes. "Huh? What just happened? Misaka says as Misaka feels kind of droopy."

"Tch. That girl." Accelerator said as he scowled.

Accelerator then stood up and started walking towards the door that lead out of Yomikawa's apartment.

Last Order had watched him and turned her body around and was curious to see what he was doing. "Ah, where are you going? Misaka asks as Misaka is curious about what Accelerator is up to."

"I just have some business to take care of. You're coming too Last Order." Accelerator said as he turned around and continued his path out of the apartment.

"Ah!" Last Order jumped up off the couch and started running towards Accelerator. "Where are we going then? asks Misaka as Misaka chases right behind Accelerator."

"We're going to visit that fucking hero in the hospital."

Misaka's face brightened up. "Yay! We get to see the savior again! Misaka exclaims cheerfully as Misaka starts skipping."

* * *

And so they were present in the hospital room of Kamijou Touma.

Touma was still befuddled at their sudden appearances. He's had many visitors before but he can't recall if Accelerator has ever visited him before. So if Accelerator wasn't there to kill him, why was he there then? was the question that Kamijou Touma answered in his mind.

"Get up, we're going for a walk." Accelerator demanded.

"Uhh what?" Touma said confused.

"You heard me."

"I uhh, kind of can't since I'm in the hospital and all that."

"It's fine, I already got that frog-faced doctor's permission to let you go out. Besides, I know you recover at a monsterous rate that a walk won't hurt you."

"But I-"

"Yay! Come on, let's go! Misaka says excited as Misaka jumps up and down on your chest."

"Ah alright, alright! I'm getting up."

* * *

Touma had followed Accelerator out of the hospital. Currently he, Last Order, and Accelerator were currently walking side by side together in that order. Last Order was skipping along happily, Accelerator still walked along with his usual scowl, and here he was confused at where Accelerator was taking him.

After a bit of walking, Accelerator turned them into a park.

"Alright brat, you can go off and play with those other kids or something." Accelerator said to Last Order as he nodded to the other groups of kids playing around the park.

"Whee! Alright! Misaka says excitedly as Misaka she runs off enthusiastically."

Accelerator watched her run off. It seemed that he was intently watching over her until he knew she was safe. As soon as he saw that she was playing among the kids, he let out a sigh. It sounded like any normal sigh but you could say it was one of relief for Accelerator. He turned away from Last Order and started walking towards a bench. All the while giving off an aura that was telling Touma to follow him.

As they neared it, Accelerator turned back around sat down on the bench. Touma looked at him and then decided the follow his example and sat down beside him a few moments later.

As he sat down, he looked over to his side to see that Accelerator was still watching Last Order. They stayed in silence for a while as Touma was still observing Accelerator watch over Last Order.

"Hmm, so it looks like Last Order is doing well huh?" Touma said letting out his thoughts.

"Yeah, I suppose she is." Accelerator said.

They sat in silence for a couple of more moments.

"I'm glad. It's great to see that she still has a happy smile on her face."

"..."

"And it looks like that you're doing just fine yourself. I guess you've been watching over her and keeping her safe. Seems that ever since WW3, you've both have had each other to keep close. I'm glad that things worked out for the both of you."

"Do you ever stop and start thinking about yourself for a change?" Accelerator said all of a sudden.

"What?" Touma said confused at his remark.

"You always think about others' happiness constantly don't you? After all, you wouldn't be a fucking hero if you didn't have that trait about you. Here you are blabbing on about how the two of us are doing."

"Well isn't it just human nature to care about others?"

"It's also human nature for people to prioritize themselves and make sure that they survive. And considering it's you, you're way off of that definition. You always try to save everyone, even going as far as suicidal lengths to do so."

"I'll never hesitate to reach out and grab someone's hand to save them. If my body is able, then I will run to them to protect their smile."

"There you go spouting all that bullshit again." Accelerator said. "It's times like these that makes me wonder what goes on through your head."

Touma looked at Accelerator questioningly as he listened on as to what Accelerator was trying to get at with his argument.

Accelerator looked at him and sighed. It looks like he wasn't going to get it.

"The Will of the Misaka Network told me everything."

Touma flinched at Accelerator's words. He could feel a chill crawl up his spine in response to his words. He recalled what the Will had said to him yesterday. Touma had sat in his bed and thought over everything she had said. Especially the last words that she had left him with. Even after going every thing she had said, he thought over all of his relationships with everyone. He had friendships that he cherished with some of them but he still rationalized that he didn't really affect peoples' lives that much did he? But even so, he did not understand what that had to do with Accelerator being here and what he was trying to get at with him.

"Listen here, she told me to ask you what you saw in that other world you went to with that fucking terrorist girl."

"..." Touma remained silent. That was the one question that he feared to answer. Even after yesterday, he still did not have the courage to confront the people he knew of what happened in the Omega World.

"Well? You going to tell me or am I going to have to beat it out of you?" It wasn't going to look like Accelerator would let this go.

"It's just..."

"Just what?"

"I know I just said I always want to protect people's smiles..." Touma said as he started fiddling with his thumbs.

"Yes, and?"

Touma let out a long sigh.

"Well, in that world, I took away everyone's smiles away."

Accelerator looked at him with a questioning look. He waited for Touma to continue but Touma had stayed silent for a couple of more moments.

"Is that it? Is that the big fucking deal?"

Touma looked at Accelerator with a sad look. "You don't understand, I destroyed everyone's happiness. When there was a chance for me to protect their happiness, I rejected that chance and destroyed that world now their happiness was gone."

"That world was obviously a fake. How you could believe that girl's bullshit is appalling."

"I only wish that world was fake. Every person in that world was real. So many people that I took their happiness away from. One of those people included you."

"Pfft. I haven't been happy most of my life, what makes you think that what happened there over there was any better than what's happened to me."

Accelerator still looked at Touma questioningly. Really, how could he have been happy in another world? There was no way considering the circumstances surrounding his powers ever since he was child. He had given up on his own happiness way back when but in the present he was content with what he had now. What could have been better in that world?

"Well... All 20,000 Sisters were alive."

After Touma had dropped that statement, Accelerator looked on at him with a serious expression.

"They were all saved. And you were happily with them, watching over them. I'm pretty sure that you were the one that saved them. That world was able to save those 10,031 sisters that I couldn't save!"

"So what?" Accelerator said in an aggressive tone.

"H-huh?" Touma said confused.

"I thought that you were stupid before, but now I know you're really fucking stupid."

Accelerator put his left palm over his face.

"But all of those lives..."

"I don't know if you've forgotten, but I was the one that took those lives. You had no idea at all of those experiments that were being conducted until that one day. How you could take responsibility for the loss of those lives is just fucking lunacy."

"I still had a chance to save all of those lives and I threw it all away." Touma said and looked at Accelerator. "Either way, you've regretted killing them right? You've told me about it and your resolve to protect the remainder. So how could I take away your wish to protect them all?"

"Idiot. Those 10,031 lives are a mark to remind me of my sins. If all of them were saved, my whole resolve would have been null and never even existed."

Accelerator turned to him and gave off an intense glare.

"But did you forget the most important thing? Did you forget who was the one that caused everything that made me want to save all of the remaining Sisters?!" Accelerator aggressively said at him.

"..." Touma had remained in silence at his question.

"It was you. Fucking you! If it wasn't for you, I would have killed off all of those clones. I wouldn't have stopped killing them by myself. It took a fucking hero to be able to stop me. And after you stopped me, I fucking looked up to you. I thought maybe I could be able to be a hero just like you and repent for my sins. It was part of the reason why I had saved Last Order. But even then, it still didn't feel right for me. I had immense doubt build up in me and I thought that a scumbag like was worth enough to even try to play a hero when I was protecting Last Order. Back in Russia during WW3, I attacked you for not being the one to save Last Order because I felt undeserving to be her savior. Even then you had continued to change me yet again. You were the one that convinced me that there were no such things as heroes or villains. You were the one that gave me a reason to continue protecting Last Order." Accelerator ranted.

"Now here I am, I'm able to live in peace and be content with my life. And who do I have to fucking thank for all of that?!" Accelerator said with gritted teeth. "Fucking you!"

After finishing what he wanted to say, Accelerator still stared at Touma intensely to make sure his message got across.

Touma did not have any response back as to what he could say to him. He was utterly in awe of what Accelerator had said to him. He could only stare back with a befuddled look.

Accelerator sighed. "And yet, the Will was telling me all this bullshit about how you think you don't affect anyone's lives. You better not be thinking about that sort of crap anymore. And you better not say anyone else in your place could have done it. It was you and only you."

Accelerator stood up from the bench.

"With the way you are, sometimes I think you're the one that needs saving."

Touma remained in silence for a couple of more moments. Even if he did have an impact on his life, what made his life any more worth than others if his own sole purpose was to help others out. There was a quality worth protecting in Accelerator as evidenced as he is now. But what sort of quality did he possess. "...But am I really someone worth protecting? There's nothing special about me, I'm just a normal high school boy. If I asked you, what would you say?"

"I told you before in Denmark, didn't I? I'm only going to protect those that are in my cellphone's memory."

Accelerator turned his head back forward and started walking away. Accelerator called for Last Order and started running towards him. Accelerator chopped Last Order's head and it seemed like he was telling her that they were leaving. Accelerator started walking forward out of the park. Last Order turned around and started waving her arms to Touma as a sign of goodbye. Touma waved back at her and she then turned back around and started running to catch up towards Accelerator who was still walking away with his back towards him. Touma watched him until he disappeared from his sight. He was now left alone at that bench. Touma let out a sigh while frowning as he thought over everything Accelerator told him.

Suddenly, a vibration was felt in his side. He pulled out the source of the vibration from his pocket, that source being his cellphone. He opened his phone and read the contents that were on the screen.

 _Don't ever forget you're a fucking hero or I'll kill you.  
_

* * *

Next Chapter: Shokuhou Misaki


	3. Shokuhou Misaki

**Well here's the 3rd chapter of this story. I know I said I was going to switch between making chapters for my two stories but I kind of already had an idea for how to make this chapter whereas I kind of hit a little wall for A Certain Honey Scent. But anyways, thanks for the reviews guys.**

 **To answer BlameTheSky; I'm going to try to take this story as far as I can. Touma has so many friends and allies that it's probably going to take a while to get through all of them. I'm probably going to go through the more prominent characters and his closest friends because it'd be way more easier to write about their thoughts because this story is about emphasizing his relationships with them and how he's affected them. I'm even thinking about writing a whole story arc after I've gone through everyone's individual time with Touma in this story.**

 **So for this chapter, I'm made it so that it's going to be directly after NT11. In NT11, it showed that Touma was still in the hospital when he came to save Misaki so it's not too far off from the ending of NT10. So I thought that it still fits chronologically which is why I thought to make the Misaki chapter so soon. I'm kind of modifying their interaction in the NT11 epilogue but I'd like to think that their conversation happened and instead of Misaki leaving, this chapter comes along. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index**

* * *

It really wasn't surprising to the girl named Shokuhou Misaki that the boy named Kamijou Touma came to save her. He had saved her before and he had saved her yet again. But more importantly, he had kept the promise he made to her during that summer. Where he would always come to save her when she used that silver whistle.

She was locked in battle with the girl named Mitsuari Ayu. Just when she thought she had lost, her prince came in to save her like a hero coming in to save the damsel. And so, it was the perfect chance to confront the boy after that whole situation was resolved.

They had reunited under different circumstances that she would have liked but she was still happy about it nonetheless. Because those circumstances had led them to here right now where they were together sitting on a bench in the courtyard of one of the hospitals of District 7 in Academy City. Although there were a couple of different feelings to this sort of reunion. To Kamijou Touma, he was feeling awkward in this situation because from his point of view, she was just a stranger that was sitting right next to him. But to her, she was more than comfortable getting to be right by his side again after a long time since he had lost his memories of her. So while she was here with him, there were so many things she wanted to talk with him about now that she finally got the chance to see him again.

Not that she didn't usually know what he was up to. With her massive web of informants, it wasn't really a surprise that she was more knowledgeable about all of the situations he got himself involved in. There was even a big event that he got himself into just recently that she was aware of.

But even she was surprised herself at how she had found out. An email she had received from Academy City just a few days prior was the one that informed her this time. _Requesting the death of Magic God Othinus and Kamijou Touma who is traveling with her._ the message had said.

Now wasn't that a surprising message for her? There were so many questions and implications she could have and had drawn from that message. But in regards to the actual request, it wasn't like she was actually going to follow through with it though. No matter how much Academy City begged, there was no way she was going to kill a precious person to her. Especially when she had to sacrifice something very important in order to save his life...

But she digressed. While she still had the chance, she would get to spend some time with him and talk with him before she had to go. Before she had to go and he would forget about her as soon as she left...

Most importantly though, she noticed something was very off with the boy. When she had talked with him, there was something noticeably different with the air that surrounded around him. The Kamijou Touma she knew had exerted a warm aura. With the sort of misfortune that surrounded him, most people would expect someone to turn jaded and bitter. But the person named Kamijou Touma had never let that get to him and he usually felt very content with his life. That misfortune served as a base that created his interesting and righteous character. That was something that most expected would never change from him and his influenced served to make the people around him feel that same warm aura he exerted.

But there was something noticeably different with Touma now. He was seemingly on edge and it looked like he was holding something inside of him that was beating at his shell. The expression on his face showed as if there were feelings of guilt that he held onto. It was unbefitting of someone like him that usually acted without any regrets. And so, Misaki swore her determination to figure out exactly what happened to him.

Misaki finally turned her head to the side to face Touma now and looked at him with a smile. Touma noticed it and turned his head towards her and kind of smiled back awkwardly as she faced him.

"So Kamijou-san, it seems that recently you've gotten into a bunch of unfortunate predicaments these last couple of days."

"Huh? Well, I guess you can say that..." Touma said scratching the back of his head.

"Hmm? Not only did you take down Mitsuari Ayu, but did you not also just take on the most of the world's strongest forces couple of days ago? Is that not something you would list as unfortunate?" Misaki said as she put a finger on her chin

"I guess you can. Wait, how do you know about that?" Touma said questioningly at her.

"Well, you know, besides making national if not global news, all Level 5s were given a message by Academy City to hunt you down during that incident." Misaki said with a smile, which was kind of weird because she was basically saying she was also supposed to be sent to kill him.

"Hmm, well that explains why Accelerator and Misaka were there in Denmark. But wait...if what you're telling me is true, doesn't that mean you're a Level 5 as well?"

"My my, how observant Kamijou-san. But yes, indeed I am."

"..." Touma continued to look at her.

Misaki noticed Touma still looking at her as if he was expecting something. "Yes?" She said while tilting her head.

"Well? Are you going to tell me who you are?"

Misaki sighed with a smile. "I believe I told you already that it would be pointless but I guess I'll oblige you. The fifth Level 5 Mental Out, Shokuhou Misaki at your service!"

"Shokuhou Misaki huh."

"That's right, and don't you forget it!" _Although something like that is impossible..._

"Alright then, Shokuhou-san." Touma said with a smile. "So if all Level 5s were sent that message, why didn't you come after me? Come to think of it, why didn't most of the Level 5s come if only Accelerator and Misaka came?"

"I'm sure you can tell by now the reasons why the #1 and #3 came for you right?" Misaki said with a hinting smile. "But for the rest, I guess most of them didn't care. I think that for me and the #7 personally, we wouldn't want to hurt someone who we consider our friend."

"Hmm, well I guess me and Gunha could be considered friends ever since we met each other at the Daihasesai." Touma then looked questioningly at Misaki. "But what connection do you and I have?"

"That's a whole story for another time. Besides, do you want to deny being a friend of a beautiful young lady like me." Misaki said while putting her hand on her chest.

Touma blushed a little. "Ehehe, I guess I wouldn't." _If only I actually knew what went on between you and me. Is she someone I knew before I lost my memory?_

Misaki smiled at his response.

"Anyway, back to the important topic. It was quite surprising seeing that message calling for your death. What I want to know, is why were you defending the leader of a major terrorist organization?"

Touma's expression suddenly dropped. The tone around him suddenly dissipated and it seemed like the air around him became heavy. "Well uhh...I protected her just because I understood why she did what she did. She was just a normal girl whose smile needed to be saved." Touma said. While his response was something that he usually said, there was an underlying feeling to it

Misaki was not surprised at his response. It was only natural that Touma always did what he does. In fact, Misaki would have normally been jealous that he was out saving girls again. But she noticed the odd conviction that was gone in the tone of his response. And she was right to be wary of it.

In Touma's mind, when he thought back as to why he protected Othinus, his mind keeps flashing back to that Omega World again. Whenever he thought back to that world, the feelings from the time he was there rose back up in him. The guilt still wracking up inside of him from destroying all of that worlds' happiness. He still had no idea why Othinus conceded the world to him. Even if he was the one to give her the understanding she sought, why was it needed to return back to this world? It was still his fault in the first place for even confronting her himself.

He still needed to tell everybody he knew exactly what happened in that world but was still scared to do so. Accelerator was the first one he confronted about it. Actually, to be exact, Accelerator was the one that confronted him. And yet, even after everything he told him, he just couldn't fathom what he just said. Did he really have that much of an effect on the #1's life? They were two opposite ends of the spectrum, he was the weakest and he was the strongest. But if he really meant it, Touma was 1 for 1 so far. He didn't know far his success would go. He thought back to the last words Accelerator had told him.

He sighed. "I wonder if I deserve being saved myself." Touma mumbled quietly to himself.

Misaki heard what he said and got stunned about what he just said. She sensed his feelings. Even if it weren't for her powers, she could certainly tell of the aura of self-deprecation that was surrounding him him right now. After everything he's done, what makes him think that he doesn't deserve to be saved? He's done nothing but help those in need. It infuriated her to hear him say that. She needed to find out the root of this.

Misaki took off her gloves and suddenly put both of her hands on each of Touma's cheeks.

"Wait, what are you-"

"Shhh, just relax." Misaki said she pulled his face down as she also placed her forehead against Touma's and closed her eyes. Touma felt very embarrassed by the close proximity of Misaki near him.

While on the inside, Misaki was feeling ecstatic at being so close to him, this was a serious matter for her. She knew that this method was the only way she knew how that would give her access to his memories and really provide a vivid image of what he's went through. While she could normally read people's memories, something like this provides her a closer look into a person's mind.

In this position, both Misaki and Touma's mind went blank all of a sudden as she activated her powers.

* * *

Misaki had set her power to start a few days ago to show exactly what happened with Touma's confrontation at the heart of GREMLIN.

The first thing she saw through Touma's eyes was that he was in Gremlin's base on Sargasso with the Magic God Othinus in front of him.

Then she saw the Magic God destroy the whole world with the completed Lance of Gungnir.

Then she saw nothing but darkness and an intense feeling of dread of having to walk through that darkness for an immeasurable amount of time.

Then she saw Academy City in complete ruins and getting bombed. She felt her stomach turn at the feeling Touma went through of having all of your friends turn on you and the intense pain from getting stabbed.

Then she saw a world where 'Kamijou Touma' lived through his normal life. Only...she could see as clear as day that that 'Kamijou Touma' was not the Touma she knew and loved. And yet, everyone continued to treat this imposter as if he was actually Kamijou Touma.

What happened next was something Misaki's mind could not believe and she almost disconnected the link from the sheer intensity of it. She saw that Touma went through an infinite amount of hells where he was killed in so many different, painful ways that she could not comprehend how he was able to survive through it all. It turned her sick to her stomach at all of the experiences he went through. She endured those memories too as she decided she had to see everything through to the end.

Suddenly, the last world that Othinus set up was noticeably different from the rest, and Touma noticed it too. Everywhere around her that she saw and what Touma saw as well were multitudes of people living on happily with their lives with no problems or conflict occurring. What she saw was what could have been described as perfection in the world. Misaki even saw herself in that world, and with Seria Kumokawa oddly enough. _There's no way I could be hanging around an old hag like her_ though. But there was something that shook her to her core. The Magic God Othinus had appeared next to Touma. Misaki then listened to the ultimatum that Othinus had given Touma. In order to preserve this world, he would have to give his life in exchange. She felt shocked at the proposition. What shocked her even more was Touma's answer to it. She could feel her heart shatter as Touma gave his answer.

"I get it, Othinus. I'll go find somewhere to die."

Her heart was breaking at not only his answer, but she was also feeling what he felt while he was in that world. The boy named Kamijou Touma had observed this world of happiness around him. He was someone whose character was dedicated to preserving the happiness of others. So if it was killing himself that was the price to pay, then he was more than ready to oblige. She saw as he walked right up to the edge of a skyscraper.

No more, she couldn't watch this anymore.

* * *

Misaki pulled back in a sudden movement and crashed against the back of the bench.

She was panting heavily and her face was sweating intensely. Misaki had a heavy look of distraught on her face.

 _All of that...all of that couldn't have been real could it?! Could Touma really have gone through something as horrible as all of that?  
_

Touma had also been surprised as he came to her suddenly pulling away and was now looking at her worryingly. "Hey, are you alright?!"

 _Why is he the one looking at me with a worried expression?! How could he possibly be the one to be worrying about others right now?!  
_

"That's what I should be asking you!"

"Huh?"

"Everything you went through...After all of that, you have the audacity to worry about others?!"

"Wait, why are you getting mad at me for worrying about you?!"

Misaki's emotions were running wild. She was both furious and worried about Touma all at the same time. Everything she had saw in that world...She was furious at how he valued himself so low over others. But she also was worried at the prospect of him sacrificing himself.

"I saw everything that happened in that world! What that magic god called the Omega World." Misaki said in aggravation.

Touma was taken aback. He gulped. So it looked like it was another person that had found out what happened over in that world.

"..."

"I don't know how you could value yourself so low like that! Why would you ever consider something like suicide!"

Touma gritted his teeth and tilted his head in a downcast manner. "You saw everything that was there too right? Everything in that world was perfect. Everyone was happy. I had no right to take that away from them."

"How could you say that when that was obviously fake?!"'

"You heard Othinus too right? Everything about that was as real as you could get."

"Did the people in that world really want all of that? Did you ever ask them?"

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that they were happy and I had a chance to give the whole world happiness just for the low cost of my life!"

"What makes you think you can just sacrifice your life as if it wasn't important?!"

"Because my life isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things! You saw the things she showed me. Anybody could have been the one with Imagine Breaker, anyone could have been the one that saves everyone. I'm nothing special, all I am is just a normal high school boy. I don't hold anything as special as a place in people's hearts."

"Don't say something like that when you don't really know exactly how other people value you! I wouldn't want a world without you around! You can't say something like that especially when I've given up something very important to me in order to have saved your life!"

Touma was shocked at her last statement. She just said that she had saved his life before. He couldn't remember when that had happened. Heck, he wasn't even sure if he remembered her. But he could see it in her eyes that she didn't lie when she said that and he had no reason to disbelieve her.

Misaki stood up and grabbed his hands. "Here, come with me."

* * *

Misaki had dragged Touma all the way to District 21. She had calmed down a bit after their little debacle back at the hospital and it looked like he did as well. He followed her all the way up all the way back up a mountain to an artificial lake. It was near right just where they were the night before when they both had confronted Mitsuari Ayu. She took him right onto the bank of the artificial lake almost right next to the water. She stared out over the horizon. Touma walked up right beside her. He wasn't so sure why she brought him here.

"You know, I almost committed suicide once as well. At this exact spot to be precise."

Touma looked at her surprisingly.

"It wasn't as for some grandiose reason as yours though. You see, I was completely done with this world after I had lost one of my closest friends and seen the ugly, dark side of Academy City. I had almost lost my will to continue on as I carried these heavy thoughts." Misaki said. "But, there was one shining light in all of this. It was one person."

Misaki turned to look at Touma.

"This person was someone very precious to me. He was there at a time for me when I was at my lowest point. He pulled me back from over the edge. This boy...he had found me and saved me in the instant right before I could have ended it all. But not only did he save me, he gave me something more that I could never repay back. We had encountered each other again many times during that summer and he had provided me with many more new memories that we created together. Those instances had helped me to forget the grievances I held before. He added new meaning to my life. Those memories were precious and something I still hold dear today. I can firmly say that that time was the happiest time of my life."

Touma was taken in by her story and felt touched by the tone of passion she told it in. "Wow...it sounded like this person was a pretty great guy."

Misaki could only giggle at the implications he made as he was still unaware that she was talking about him.

"Indeed he was, you could even say that I loved him."

Touma was taken aback at her sudden confession. "Whoa, that's pretty blunt."

"Ehehehe, you can't help a maiden being in love."

"So you're telling me he's the reason that you're uhh...still here?"

"Mmhmm. I can say that he was 100% the reason I'm still here today."

Even if he didn't know why she was telling him this, it was still something that intrigued him. "Even so, after you've told me all of this, it makes me wonder. What ever happened to this guy?"

Misaki's expression suddenly seemed downcast but she still held her smile. "A tragic event had happened that involved that boy. Even during that hard time, that boy had still continued to make me happy. But there's a reason why it was considered a tragedy."

"Wow. I'm..uhh..so sorry for bringing that up."

"Oh, you don't need to worry much." Misaki said as her tone got brighter again. "Even if it was a tragedy, that boy had survived. And yet, he is now gone as well."

Touma was perplexed at that description. What had happened to that boy? "Well if he survived, then that means he's still out there right? I hope you can eventually find him."

"I don't think I need to worry about that. I think he's closer than you think." Misaki said as she suddenly moved closer to him in front of his face.

"What do you mean?"

"You really are as dense as a harem protagonist sometimes."

"Huh?"

"Do I really need to spell it out for you? That person was you."

"Hahhhhhh?!"

"See, this reason is why I wanted you to know that you're more important than what you think you're truly worth."

"I-I'm the one in your story?"

"Yes." Misaki said with a sigh. "That's why it infuriated me when you saw that you thought that you don't hold a place in anyone's hearts. Well I can surely prove you wrong that you hold a special place in at least one girl's heart. That is why I didn't believe you when you said that everyone in that Omega World was happy. I truly can't imagine a world where I'd be happy if it didn't have you in it."

Touma was at a loss for words. Did he really have that much significance in her life? He wondered to himself if he really did do all of that with her. He could not remember for the life of him but it looked like she was confident in her own memory of what she was telling him.

But one thing bothered him. "If I am that boy in your story, then I have a question. What was that tragedy you were telling me about?"

Misaki looked kind of downcast at his question. "You were severely injured in trying to protect me from a group that was attacking Level 5s. You were so close to the brink of death and I was horrified at the idea of losing you. That's why I don't want to have to lose you again. But most importantly, I had to sacrifice something near and dear to me in order to save your life."

"And that was?"

"Your memory of me."

"What?" Touma said questioningly.

"You've lost your ability to remember me. As soon as I walk out of your sight, you will forget everything that involves me." Misaki said dejectedly.

He couldn't remember her? How would he be able to forget everything involving her today?

"And so, even if you do forget about me, I want you to always remember that your life is worth more than what you think it is. You've touched the hearts of many, including this girl, and will continue to touch the hearts of many."

Touma could not respond to her statement. He took in what she said but he just continued to stand there.

Misaki then turned her full body to him and grabbed both of his hands to turn his body to hers.

"I have one more final request before we go. Here, close your eyes."

Touma had a questioning look as to why she had wanted him to close his eyes but he decided to comply to her request. He shut his eyes tight and stood there patiently and waited to see what that girl was going to do.

But the last thing he had remembered, the last memory he had of that day, was a faint taste of honey.

* * *

And that's the end of Misaki's chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed this one.

Next Chapter: Hamazura Shiage


	4. Hamazura Shiage

**Alright guys so here's Hamazura's chapter!**

 **I feel that this chapter's pretty late(almost one month!) but I'm glad I finally got this one out. I was writing for my other story and college work has definitely caught up to me.**

 **But on to about the chapter!**

 **I really like Touma's relationships with the other protagonists(I.E. Accelerator and Hamazura) so that's why I thought to write up Hamazura's next. Really the idea for this chapter came pretty easily thanks to NT12. In NT12, you can tell that Hamazura notices that something is very off with Touma, which I thought was pretty cool considering how no one really ever noticed anything different about him after NT10. It was also pretty cool of him to defend Touma from St. Germain's claims about how he was responsible for Frenda's death. And even more than that, Hamazura actually pushes Touma back so that he doesn't try to go off and do he self-sacrificing stuff like he usually does. His line where he says "Then this is _a good chance for you to see how it feels for the one being protected._ " cemented his bro status that volume.**

 **So this chapter is going to be right after NT12. But after this chapter I still kind of want to set the timeline to right around while Touma's still in the hospital after NT10 to see if I can explore any more situations for characters around that time so you can kind of think of this like a 'future' chapter if that makes any sense.**

 **Anyways, hope you guys enjoy it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index**

* * *

Hamazura took a deep breath and stretched his arms out.

They were finally able to defuse the gravity control device situation below the Dianoid and he was finally able to go outside. Hamazura was also finally able to get out of his power lifter as well which was why he was stretching at his newfound freedom.

He sweatdropped as he recalled the reason as to why he wanted to get out of the power lifter in the first place. The A.I. that was installed in his power lifter, Aneri, gave him some trouble that he never expected. Aneri had taken control of the power lifter and tried to mess with and keep his girlfriend Takitsubo away from him. He was still in disbelief at how an A.I. could display feelings of jealousy. On the other side of that, Takitsubo was also getting jealous of the A.I. Her jealousy was something that he had feared. The feelings from both sides had caused an unwarranted catfight over him and he could only just think about how ridiculous it was.

But moving on from that. As he finally finished stretching, Hamazura moved his head and took a look around the area. He was glad to see that the people that were in the Dianoid were alright after the turn of events that took place inside there.

Over in the distance, he saw a familiar spiky-hair sticking out in the crowd. Narrowing his eyes, a little he could see the boy named Kamijou Touma along with the person they had just rescued named Kanou Shinka. It seemed that they were talking with each other and the small boy had pressed Touma with a question. The spiky-haired boy responded and suddenly he saw that the small boy looked taken aback by what he just said.

Hamazura could only smile to himself. He knew that the boy named Kamijou Touma was making another impact on someone in the world. He wasn't a stranger to the boys' actions and so something like that wouldn't have surprised him.

He continued to watch on until the small boy had left and Touma remained standing there seeing him off.

While Hamazura could smile at the outcome of everything that had just happened, he still had a bunch of questions that had formed in his mind during the events that had just happened today.

Even after everything he's been through, the world of magic was still something that was very foreign to him. Through the brief explanation that young, blonde-haired girl had given him in Touma's apartment, he could tell that magic was a complicated topic. He was still in disbelief over how the single, regular magician St. Germain was able to cause this much trouble. He could only shudder at what would have happened against enemies more powerful.

Hamazura looked over at Kamijou Touma. _T_ _his guy probably goes through events like these very commonly._ He knew how involved Touma was in the Magic World. He would never be able to know how that guy was able to put himself through even more tougher situations. There was even a certain event not too long ago that Hamazura was surprised and at the same time not surprised that the boy involved himself in.

After the acts of what the terrorist organization GREMLIN had performed, he remembered hearing about how a coalition had come together to finally stop them. And not too surprisingly, that boy was involved in it. Something like that was expected of him. But the surprising part came to him when he saw the next thing that happened. That boy, after invading Gremlin's base in pursuit of the ringleader of it all, was standing against the world and defending her.

He saw the coverage of it on international news. Not only that, Mugino had told him that Academy City had sent out a message to all Level 5s calling out for the death of that boy. He had became panicked and worried over the information she had just told him and he worked to try to convince her not to go through with it, which, to his surprise, was actually not even that hard. She barely even cared about the situation and Hamazura telling her not to do so had convinced her enough that it wasn't worth the effort to do so.

Seeing the struggles that that boy had gone through reminded him just how much of a force that boy was. And him surviving after all of that had solidified it.

But the real question to ask after all of that was, why did he suddenly defend the leader of the most infamous terrorist organization? Something was fishy about that but he was confident that he could say that Kamijou Touma probably had a good reason to do so. To be motivated to fight the whole world required a good reason.

Hamazura continued to focus on Kamijou Touma in the distance.

He had known and viewed Kamijou Touma as a hero for a while now. Hamazura understood that the boy was one to save people without needing a reason. It was appalling at the lengths he would go.

But it was those lengths that made him worry for the boy sometimes. Today was one of those times. Hamazura noticed that there was just something off with the boy that he had seen today.

His demeanor and the atmosphere around him had seemed different from the last time he had saw him. But the biggest evidence were the actions of Kamijou Touma today.

One of the pieces of evidence was when he first ran into the boy. Kamijou Touma had run into him all distraught and worried. Hamazura had never seen him be so shaken before when he mentioned about facing a Magic God. But his worry must have been very severe if Touma was really willing to fight him to stop him from confronting the magician. He still couldn't believe they had a fight over that but he just really wanted to protect the people close to him. Kamijou Touma understood that and Hamazura even appreciated the concern that Touma had for him. He wondered though, just how intense were Magic Gods if they pushed him to that point?

Another piece that stuck out to him was the issue involving Frenda and that boy named Kanou Shinka. One of the ways that St. Germain manipulated Kanou Shinka was to direct his anger towards the one responsible for his friend Frenda's death. St. Germain had somehow managed to convince him that Kamijou Touma was the culprit and cause of her death.

Hamazura was infuriated at that thought. There was absolutely no way that they could pin something like that on him. He had nothing to do with any of what had happened in that situation and there was absolutely no way for him to have known. He could not believe why they would pin it on an innocent being like him.

But that wasn't the most perplexing part. The most perplexing part was when Kamijou Touma had accepted that burden. He was willing to take the blame for her death. He was willing to sacrifice himself to that small boy.

Hamazura could have sworn he saw a glint in his eyes when he said that he was willing to do so. It almost seemed like he truly believed that he was responsible for Frenda's death...

 _Damn it._ Hamazura thought to himself. He needed to ask Touma what all of that was about. And now was as good a time as any.

He moved to walk over to the boy who was still in the same spot when he was waving off Kanou Shinka. He stepped up right beside him and they were now side by side as they both looked forward.

"So all's well that ends well huh?" Hamazura piped up next to him.

"Heh, I guess so. I think it all worked out in the end." Touma responded.

Hamazura looked off into the distance at the shrinking figure. "So you think that boy is going to be alright? I wonder how this whole thing would have affected someone like him." He said referring to Kanou Shinka.

"I think he'll be fine. It seems like this whole debacle actually helped him and probably gave him the boost he needed so that he doesn't need to rely on using Aihana Etsu's name anymore."

"I'm glad for that. It's good that he's not going to hide behind the #6's name anymore, I've learned a while ago that levels don't define someone's strength."

"Hmm, that's a nice mindset to have."

Hamazura chuckled. "Hehe, learned it directly from you boss."

Touma smiled at his statement.

"It also seems that he finally found closure with Frenda's death as well." Touma added.

Hamazura's expression kind of dropped at the topic he brought up. Frenda was certainly an important point in what had happened in today's events. He was personally glad that her friend found closure for her death because, in a way, it also gave him relief as well.

But her death was also used for a nefarious deed that infuriated him. Frenda's death was used as a point to hold against Kamijou Touma in order to kill him. He needed to talk to him about that topic.

"Oi! Hamazura!" The pair heard a voice from behind them.

The two boys turned around to see that the rest of ITEM were walking up to them. The voice that they heard earlier came from Mugino.

The trio of Mugino, Takitsubo, and Kinuhata walked up to them. "Now that the whole situation has been resolved, we're heading back. You coming?" Mugino said.

"Errr" Hamazura said as he scratched the back of his head. He turned over to look at Touma. "Actually, I still got something I got to talk to the boss about."

Touma turned his head to Hamazura and raised his eyebrow. The ITEM girls looked surprised as well.

"Alright then, well do what you have to do and then come back to us as soon as you can." Mugino said.

She turned over to look at Touma. "You know, I've heard about you, but I've never had a chance to really meet you or talk to you."

"I uhh, don't believe I've ever gotten a chance to talk to you as well." Touma said. He knew that this girl was one of Hamazura's friends and recognized her from when she barged into his apartment looking for Hamazura that one time. "I'm Kamijou Touma." He said as he held out his hand.

Mugino looked at his hand. "Shizuri Mugino." She said before accepting his gesture. "I was kind of expecting someone more intimidating with your kind of reputation."

"I have a reputation?" Touma asked. He thought back to his first conversation with Kanou Shinka and kind of realized that he was sort of known now.

"Indeed. After all, you're the one that defeated the #1 and #3 right?"

Touma slowly nodded to confirm.

Mugino smirked. "I wonder how my Meltdowner would have stacked against you. After all, I was given an order to kill you a little while back." Mugino said in a dark tone.

Touma tensed at the bluntness of her statement. He also realized that she was talking about the event where the whole world was sent against him during the Othinus incident.

"Mugino..." Hamazura said nervously.

"Buuut, Hamazura here convinced me to not go after you. I didn't think it was worth it anyway." She said as her expression lightened.

She turned and started walking away. The other 2 girls watched and moved to follow behind her as well, with Takitsubo turning back and giving a little wave to Hamazura before they left. "We'll see you later after you finish your business with him." Mugino said as a last word.

The two boys watched as the group of girls disappeared in the distance.

"Well uhh, that was certainly interesting." Touma said as he sweatdropped.

"I'm glad she didn't try to start a fight." Hamazura shuddered. "She's a pretty scary person, I bet you she'd kill me for saying that."

Touma laughed nervously but he agreed with that statement.

"I'm kind of glad too. Also, from what she said, I guess I have you to thank that I didn't have to earlier."

Hamazura scratched the back of his head. "It's no big deal."

Touma smiled. "Hehe, well I guess I hope other people won't try to start a fight with me."

"Don't be like that boss, what about maintaining your reputation?" Hamazura joked.

"I didn't even know I had a reputation!"

Hamazura laughed.

Touma turned his head and looked over to Hamazura.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about anyway?" He said questioningly.

"Well...why don't we find a place to talk about this instead of standing around?"

"Alright, you got any suggestions?"

"Yeah, I got a place."

* * *

Hamazura and Touma had arrived at a diner. It seemed appropriate as it was nearing dinner time after the whole series of events that happened today. He had chosen this particular place because it was one of the places that ITEM chose to frequent a lot.

As they walked up to the restaurant, Touma stopped and looked up at it. _This_ _was the diner that I saw him at in that other world..._ Touma thought to himself.

"Hey boss, you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine." Touma said as he snapped out of his state.

"Alright, well, let's head inside."

Hamazura decided that they would eat first before they walked. It would be a nice change of pace and pretty relaxing after the crazy day that the both of them had gone through. Touma was fretting whether or not he could afford eating out but Hamazura offered to pay for his meal. It was really nice that he had a job now.

He could have sworn he saw Touma bawling when he said that and once more at the sight of food.

"Oh my god, so this is what being able to eat a whole meal without Index stealing it from me feels like." Hamazura heard him comment.

Hamazura was kind of amused at the sight of Touma enjoying himself.

After finishing their meals, Hamazura finally felt like he it was time to ask what he wanted to say. It felt kind of awkward to try to bring it up in this atmosphere but there some things he really wanted to know from the boy.

Hamazura looked over at Touma. "Listen, I know that this might be something out of the blue, but I really wanted to talk to you about a couple of things boss." He said.

Touma looked inquisitively at him. "Sure, that's fine. What is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well it's more like a bunch of questions I have. Most of them concerning what happened today" Hamazura said as he looked over at Touma.

Touma raised his eyebrow.

"Alright, go ahead." He said as he nodded in confirmation.

"Alright, well..." _Where do I begin?_ Hamazura tried to recall his thoughts that he had earlier that day.

"I guess the first thing I really want to know is, what are Magic Gods? When you ran into me today, you were-"

*Clunk!*

"Huh? Boss?!" Hamazura exclaimed in surprise.

At the mention of the words 'Magic Gods', the trauma instilled into Touma from the Omega World had surfaced yet again. He grasped his head with both hands and had crashed on top of the table.

"Oh god! The memories of that world!"

"Boss?! Are you okay?!"

"Ahhh!" Kamijou Touma was now squirming on top of the table.

Hamazura stood up from his chair in panic and moved over to him. When he looked down at the boy, he could see the look on Touma's face. It was one of panic and distress. A sense of worry washed over Hamazura as soon as he saw it.

While Hamazura motioned to help Touma, the commotion was being noticed by other people around the diner. They were looking over to see what was the source of the ruckus going on.

Hamazura looked around and notice the the stares as well. _Crap_ , _I gotta get him outta here and calm him down somehow._

"Come on, let's go outside and get some fresh air." Hamazura grabbed him by the shoulders. He lifted him up and wrapped one of Touma's arms around his neck while Touma's other arm was still clutching his head.

* * *

"Ugghh, I'm sorry Hamazura."

"It's fine boss."

Hamazura was still holding Touma's arm around his neck as they walked down a sidewalk in Academy City's 7th district. They didn't say much more while they were walking. Hamazura told him that they were going to get some fresh air and so made way for one of the parks.

They made their way into the park and Hamazura unwrapped his arm around him to let him sit.

As soon as Hamazura sat him down, Touma's body crashed all the way backwards onto the bench.

"I'm sorry about all of that." Touma said as he looked up to Hamazura.

"I already told you it's fine. There's nothing you have to apologize for." Hamazura said as he also took a seat right besides Touma.

"If anything, it's me that has to apologize."

"What for?"

"What I said was the cause of that wasn't it?"

"..."

Hamazura took his silence of confirmation.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then you don't need to. Forget I asked."

"No...It's all right. It's just..."

He let out a long sigh.

"Magic Gods are infinitely more scary than anything else that I've ever faced." Touma started off with. His face getting contorted as he spoke. "Their power is just so immense and way more powerful than what the world could comprehend. It's not something to brush off, I experienced first hand their power. That's why I didn't want you running straight into St. Germain if we didn't know whether he was one or not."

 _They even have the power to make the world perfect._ Touma thought.

"I get it now boss. You don't need to say any more. If anything, I have give you my thanks for looking out for me."

Hamazura listened closely to his answer. Magic Gods must be serious business if it's sent someone like Kamijou Touma into distress. Touma had just told him that he experienced facing a Magic God firsthand. But Hamazura wanted to know what had happened. Something happened to him that caused a huge change in him. The Kamijou Touma in front of him felt different from the last time had met him. Which lead him to his next question...

"But moving away from that topic, there's also something also I want to talk to you about."

 _Maybe asking him this would reveal just what happened to him and what caused that change in him_ was what Hamazura thought.

"Back in the Dianoid, when we were in Frenda's room, we overheard St. Germain and how she was trying to direct Kanou Shinka's anger towards you by saying you were the cause of her death. I know we went over this, but I have to discuss this with you in-depth again. Why did you take the blame for Frenda's death?"

"Hmm? I thought we both settled that issue. I know it my idea was kind of crazy-"

"It was more than crazy. Why would you willingly take the blame for something you didn't do."

"I told you, I was just being selfish-"

"You say that but how does being selfish equate to sacrificing yourself?! Listen boss, I think of you as a hero, but there's just something wrong with that thought." _Something has changed in you._ "So I ask again, why did you take the blame for Frenda's death? You've seemed different than the last time I saw you."

Hamazura crossed his arms and looked intently at him.

Touma stayed silent for a while.

"...Maybe...maybe because I actually do believe I caused Frenda's death."

"I already told you that there's no way you could have done anything about it."

"No...not in the way you think Hamazura..."

"What?"

Hamazura was confused. Not in the way he thought? What other way was there?

"Remember how I said I experienced the firsthand what a Magic God can do?"

Hamazura nodded.

"Well, one of the things a Magic God can do is that they can change this world completely. You have no idea at what they could control. I was sent through many of these different worlds that a Magic God created."

"Many different worlds?"

Touma sighed and frowned as he recalled that other world. "Yes, different worlds. And one of the worlds that I was sent to was the perfect world."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean just that, it was absolutely perfect. One where all conflicts were resolved. Everyone over there was happy and they all held a smile on their faces. It was just so perfect that it'd be something you couldn't believe, but it was there."

"So you're telling me you saw kind of Utopia? So then what does this have to do with Frenda's death?"

Touma turned his head to him.

"Hamazura, back in that other world, I saw Frenda. She was alive over in that world."

Hamazura's eyes widened. He sat in silence for a few moments to take in what he just said.

"No...that can't be possible. That world couldn't possibly be real if she was alive."

"It was real. Everything about that world was all real." Touma said with a downtrodden face. "And I was the one that took it all away."

"Took it away?"

"To get back to this world, I had to destroy the other world in order to return. That means I destroyed that world where she was alive. So in a way, I really am responsible for her death."

"That...that's just stupid!" Hamazura exclaimed. "Can't you see that something like that is too good to be true? There's no possible way she could be alive after what happened to her! Did you consider the possibility that what you saw was just an illusion?"

"That's just the power of a Magic God." Touma frowned. "Even if it was an illusion, it's fitting that I'm called the illusion killer." Touma laughed sadly.

"Boss..."

"There was another thing I need to mention. A certain condition in that world. If I wanted to preserve everyone's happiness, I had to kill myself so I wouldn't have ruined that world."

At that statement, Hamazura was absolutely shocked.

"I weighed my own happiness against the happiness of 6 billion. That's why I believe I'm selfish. After all, I'm not really worth much compared to everyone's happiness that was over there."

"Hey! Don't you think about yourself like that!" Hamazura said as he suddenly grabbed Touma's shoulders. He couldn't believe what Touma was saying. Had he really valued himself so little?

"Listen boss, There's no way that something as miraculous as that could happen. I don't think that anyone would truly blame you for doing what you did."

Touma frowned and then turned lifted his head to look at Hamazura. "Are you sure?"

Hamazura nodded.

"Then what about you? I saw you over in that world as well Hamazura." Touma looked at him. "That means I took away your happiness as well."

Hamazura let go of Touma's shoulders and moved back on the bench to listen to what he had to say.

Touma recalled the scene in his head when he had seen Hamazura in the Omega World. "That diner we went to today, I remember a nice scene in there. You were in that diner we went with all of your friends, including Frenda and her little sister. It was a happy picture and all of you held smiles on your faces." Touma said downcast.

Hamazura listened closely. It looked like Touma had even more to say.

"I even saw two other people with you not from your current group, I overheard that their names were Komaba and Hanzou."

Hamazura tensed up as he heard those names.

Touma had noticed his tension "I can only assume that they were very close friends of yours?"

Hamazura didn't know what to say but he slowly nodded.

"That's what I thought." Touma frowned.

Hamazura had specifically been taken aback at the mention of Komaba's name. The former beloved leader of Skill-Out was alive in that world as well?

"So in destroying that world, your happiness was gone as well. I don't think I could expect you to forgive me for taking all of that away from you."

Hamazura gritted his teeth.

"Why would I blame you for something like that? I don't believe that you're at fault for taking something away that never even existed. I'd be no better than St. Germain if I did that."

"Wha-?"

"Is it really that surprising boss?"

"But...your friends were over in that world."

"There's one thing wrong with that argument boss. If you had gone through with that condition, I would have lost something in that world."

"What do you mean?" Touma said confused.

"I consider you as one of my friends." Hamazura said firmly.

"Huh?"

"I think you're my friend too. I don't know why you chose to argue using the reason of having all of my friends over in that world when that condition you mentioned meant losing one of them."

"But I...Could I really be included in the category of close bonds that you share with others?"

"You don't need to feel ostracized and think you're excluded from the bonds of friendship people have. I don't know why you choose to exclude yourself from that grouping and then use it as a reason to try to get me to hate you."

"Hamazura..."

"Listen, Mugino killed Frenda and almost killed me and Takitsubo. And yet, here we are now. She's one of my closest friends."

Touma listened but he was confused as to what Hamazura was getting at.

"And you, well...You've done more for me than you probably realize." _In fact, I think you've done a lot for people that you don't even realize._

"I can safely say that I'm currently happy with my life. I don't know how it would compare to that other world but I'm pretty damn happy. I've got my girlfriend, a nice job, and my friends with me. But the reason I'm at this happy point in my life is because of you. You were the one that got me started on the path that lead me here. If I had never met you, I would have never learned about how what I was doing in Skill-Out was wrong and that I fucked up. You were the one that knocked some sense into me. If that never happened, I would have never met ITEM and I'd probably be stuck in Skill-Out still just amounting to nothing more than a thug. Your lesson about Level 0s was what motivated me to save my girlfriend. And not just that, weren't you also the one that protected the last link connected to Frenda? You were the one that saved her little sister Fremea from Umidori. So if the world lost someone like you, I truly believe that the world wouldn't be as happy as you think it would be."

Touma looked at Hamazura with a neutral expression, almost looking like his mouth was about to turn with a frown. He could not find anything to say so he turned back forward and looked down. He did not say anything and remained silent for a while.

Hamazura looked at him. He had said what he wanted to say and what he said were his true feelings. Thinking over everything they had just talked about, he truly realized what had changed in Kamijou Touma. Hamazura saw the boy as a hero. He knew that Kamijou Touma was a hero. But that boy was a hero to the point where he placed other people's well-beings and happiness above his own. That person had just told him about destroying a whole world of happiness and he realized that, with someone like him, him putting his own desires over others was something contradictory to his character. The guilt of his actions was eating him up. That was what was wrong with the boy that he had seen today.

Touma let out a sigh after a while. "Well then I guess that's one person crossed off the list that doesn't hate me." _Add another to the counter Will._ "But what about the other 6 billion people in the world?"

Hamazura couldn't find an answer to that. "Well you'll just have to ask them yourselves boss."

*Ring**Ring*

Hamazura and Touma jumped up at the sudden noise.

They noticed source of the sound was coming from Hamazura's pants. Hamazura reached into his pockets and found it was his phone that was ringing, the caller ID saying that Mugino was calling him.

"Hello-"

"Oi Hamazura! Why aren't you back yet? You just said that you were going to have a quick talk with that spiky-haired boy and it's been a few hours. Where are you now?!"

"I uhh, we had a lot to talk about eheheh."

"Hmm, well you better hurry up already." Mugino said in a dark tone.

"Yes, will do." Hamazura said before he hung up abruptly. He knew he had to get back before Mugino got too angry.

"*Sigh* Guess I have to go now." Hamazura said.

He stood up from the bench and took a step forward. He turned around to look at Kamijou Touma who was still sitting on the bench.

"Listen boss, you're definitely not hated as much as you think you are. I'm sure there are other people that hold you dear and cherish their bond with you."

Touma lifted his head up and looked at him.

"But remember this, you are one of my friends. And I fight to protect my friends." Hamazura smiled at him. He turned around. "I'll see you around boss." He said as he walked off and waved goodbye.

Touma watched as Hamazura disappeared off in the distance.

He remained sitting on that bench for a while. His mind echoing everything that Hamazura told him. _One of his friends huh?_

A small smile popped up on his melancholic face.

* * *

Next Chapter: Tsuchimikado Motoharu


	5. Tsuchimikado Motoharu

**Alright guys here's chapter 5, featuring our favorite spy!  
**

 **I remember a reviewer saying a while back that they wanted a Tsuchimikado chapter and so here it is. I wanted to write this as well so I was more than happy to oblige. Tsuchimikado is one of Touma's closest friends and so it was definitely in the back of my mind to write a chapter about him for this fic at the beginning as well. As you can see from my Accelerator and Hamazura chapters, I really like Touma's relationships with his male friends. Tsuchimikado's relationship with Touma specifically though is one that I think is pretty interesting. He's one of his closest friends and they both share the duality of hanging out in school and getting involved in Magic/Science Side events. Throughout the series, Tsuchimikado shows remorse at getting Touma involved in all of the sorts of events he goes through and even tries to protect him by trying to stop him from getting involved. The reverse also happens where Touma cries after beating Tsuchimikado in NT7 which I thought was a touching moment.  
**

 **Another thing about this fic is I guess it serves as a dual chapter, as you will read, for Seria Kumokawa. We don't know enough about her or her relationship with Touma in detail from back then for me to truly write a whole chapter dedicated to her so I'm including her part in this one.**

 **And as I said from the previous chapter, I'm dialing the time of this chapter to be after Misaki's since Hamazura's chapter was technically a future chapter since it was after NT12.**

 **Anyways, hope you all enjoy this!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index.**

* * *

A sigh rang out.

It echoed in a room. It was a fairly nice room inside an apartment. The apartment was fairly spacious and the furniture that laid around the place was nice. In the middle of the living room was a couch. And sitting on top of that couch was a girl.

It had seemed that the source of the sigh came from her.

She was a beautiful girl with an ample bosom. Her outfit consisted of a high school sailor uniform with the top showing off her midriff. The girl had long black hair and wore a headband. A mature air surrounded this girl as well.

This girl's name was Kumokawa Seria.

She was sitting down on the couch while operating a holographic screen in front of her. It looked like she was scrolling feverishly through whatever it was she was that she was looking at.

As it was said before, a sigh had escaped from her mouth and it was due in courtesy to what she was reading.

The information passing through the holographic screen was that concerning the boy named Kamijou Touma.

"It seems like no matter what, there's nothing we can do to truly protect him." She frowned.

Seria had been looking over the recent events that had been happening to that boy. She was able to gain this sort of information thanks to the power she held from working underneath the Board of Directors.

She was feeling melancholic all over again. It was just like that time after WW3 where she believed that he was dead. After his return, she lamented on the fact that they could not have done anything to protect that boy. Even with the power that she held.

Ever since that time, a lot of events had happened to that boy yet again. Sifting through everything had continued adding to this feeling of sadness within her. She couldn't stand what had been happening to the boy she loved. But the most recent event had been something that was most particularly weighing on her heart.

"Ahaha, what seems to have you down?" A voice chimed suddenly chimed in from a far corner of the room.

Seria did not turn her head to the new party had just entered the room. A shadow was looming nearby her.

"You know as well as I do what it is." She said addressing the voice.

The person smirked. "I don't believe I do."

"Cut the crap Tsuchimikado, we all know a spy of your caliber probably knows most of what's been going on."

The person's sunglasses glimmered. "I'm not a spy anymore remember? I'm just a person that works underneath you to be used as a pawn."

"As if that would stop you from gathering information."

The person continued to smirk and remained silent to that statement. He could try to deny her claim but it didn't look like she would believe him anyway. He walked over to her and stood right beside the couch.

"I'm assuming it has something to with a certain boy?" He said.

"Well aren't you quite the observant one." Seria said sarcastically.

"Now, now, no need to get snippy with me."

"Grrrr."

Tsuchimikado smiled. He loved teasing Kumokawa. But he knew that he was completely at her mercy because she had saved him from Academy City's darkness. She had faked his death and allowed him to live under the condition that he worked under her.

"Ooh, I know. It's love troubles with Kami-yan, isn't it? I know you've been working hard to try to get close to him again but you know how dense he is. I could try talking to him for you if you want."

"I don't need you to play wingman for me!"

"Alright, alright. I know you girls have your pride but are you sure you don't want me to help? You do know how Kami-yan has the affection of many other girls."

"Like I care for those others."

"Ah, well if you don't do anything, they'll start getting a leg up on you."

"Why am I even discussing my love life with you?!"

"Fine, fine. Well I'll guess I'll continue supporting Kanzaki nee-chin then." Tsuchimikado said as he put his hand underneath his chin. "I know you've been trying to abuse the advantage you have from Kami-yan's preferences, but nee-chin also holds that advantage and could possibly pull the rug from you."

"Do you want me to throw you back into the darkness?!"

"Now, now, there's no need for that. You have that senpai appeal to your advantage as well."

*Sigh* Seria put her hand to her forehead and rubbed it in frustration.

Tsuchimikado was smiled in amusement at her. But that smile eventually started dripping down to form a serious expression. He knew in all honesty what she was referring about.

"This is about how you couldn't protect Kami-yan again right?" Tsuchimikado said in a more serious tone.

"As I said, quite the observer you are."

"You know, I had those same feelings as well once. I've never wanted to drag someone like Kami-yan into any of this." Tsuchimikado sighed. "But, as the carrier of Imagine Breaker, it was inevitable."

"I suppose so." Seria said kind of downcast.

"That's why we can only do what we do to support him as best we can."

"Tch. I don't think Academy City's latest orders were really supportive of him."

A smile appeared on Tsuchimikado's face. "Everything turned out well for him though right?"

Seria stared at the information in front of her on the holographic screen. "I guess. Although I wouldn't call facing a Magic God and the rest of the world really qualifies for being 'alright'."

"Hmm, well either way, the only way to know is check up on him for ourselves. He's still in the hospital and I feel like I should pay him a visit. Why don't you come as well?"

Seria finally turned to her head to look at him and crossed her arms. "I don't know if I should. Is it really fitting for me to go? You're one of his closest friends and I'm merely nothing more than his senpai."

"But you were once more than that weren't you?"

"..." She remained silent.

"Alright, well if you don't feel like it, then suit yourself." Tsuchimikado said as he turned around and walked out of her apartment.

Seria watched as he left her apartment. After the door closed, she let out a sigh and let herself fall back and slump on the couch, Tsuchimikado's words still ringing in her mind.

 _*Sigh* Maybe I should try to get closer to him again._

She knew that's what she really wanted in her heart. But their respective positions in the cog that is the machine called Academy City would probably make it hard to do anything.

 _At the very least, I should try to not let that blonde brat get ahead of me._

* * *

Kamijou Touma laid in his hospital bed. He was still recovering from his battle against the whole world. Even with his monstrously fast recovery rate, it would still take a while to heal most of his wounds.

While laying in his bed, a certain itch was ticking at his head. It felt as if there was something missing in his memory just yesterday. He was trying hard to recall what happened but the only thing he could recall was this feeling of sadness. He did know why that feeling of sadness persisted so he felt like it was something . But most importantly, the most vivid thing he remembered from yesterday was a honey scent.

And yet, somehow he also felt some sort of relief well in him.

Suddenly he heard the door to his room slam open. He turned his head.

"Kami-yaaaaaan!" Tsuchimikado's voice reverberated through the room.

A blonde-haired boy wearing sunglasses and a hawaiian shirt underneath a school jacket had just walked straight through the door into the hospital room of the boy named Kamijou Touma.

At the sudden intrusion, Touma up jumped in his bed in surprise as he looked at the new occupant in the room.

"Tsuchimikado? What are you doing here?" He said in surprise.

"What, I'm not allowed to visit one of my friends now?" Tsuchimikado said in response as he walked up to Touma's bed.

"No, it's not anything like that." Touma said scratching the back of his head.

"I often visit you whenever you get admitted into the hospital no?"

"Well...I guess that is true."

Truth of the matter was, it had been a while since Touma had seen Tsuchimikado. Specifically, the last time he had seen him was during the Agitate Halation incident. And the last time they had not met was a pleasant greeting so to say. Touma had found Tsuchimikado broken and battered during that incident. They had fought, and Touma came out the victor. But Touma did not feel good for winning that battle, and he had cried for his friend.

That was the last time had had seen him so he did not know how to react to seeing him again. But looking at Tsuchimikado's demeanor, it seemed like he was still the same person that he always knew him as. Not as the spy or magician known as the Backstabbing Blade, but as Tsuchimikado Motoharu, member of Delta Force and friend of Kamijou Touma.

"It looks like you got caught up in some misfortune again Kami-yan."

"I guess you can say that." Touma said. "Did you see what happened?" He asked him. It had been made apparent that his actions were broadcasted globally so he wondered if Tsuchimikado did know about recent events.

"Ahh I think I did. It seemed like it was just the usual Kami-yan business. I betcha that it was all to save some girl again wasn't it?" He said putting a finger up.

Touma scratched the back of his head and laughed lightly, confirming his statement. Well that was one way to put it.

"Ah as expected of you Kami-yan. Always the shining knight to save the princess."

Tsuchimikado smirked. "But oh no, that means that another has probably been befallen by the Kami-yan disease, when will you ever stop Kami-yan?" He said putting the back of his hand to his forehead.

"Oi oi, stop being so dramatic."

"How can I Kami-yan? Your harem expands again and there is no stopping the disease. Soon all of the girls in the world will be under your control, you might even take my precious Maika away from me."

"Why would I try to take your sister away from you?"

"Are you saying that you're too good for her?!"

"Where did that rationale come from?!"

"You bastard, I can't forgive you for this!" Tsuchimikado said as he lunged forward and put Touma into a headlock.

"Calm down you damn sis-con!" Touma yelled from the headlock.

"Little sisters are the cutest thing in the world Kami-yan! You can't possibly argue against that!"

"You've gone off to the opposite end of the spectrum. It's onee-chans that are the cutest!" Touma got out of the headlock and counter-attacked by putting Tsuchimikado in a headlock around his right arm.

"Blasphemy Kami-yan! Surely from your wide and expansive harem you must surely have a little sister character in there!"

"As if!"

 _The only person young enough I know that would fit the age requirement of a little sister is Birdway, and no way in hell is she a little sister character!_

Tsuchimikado wriggled his way out of Touma's headlock and stood back up.

"You will see the light eventually! Even if I have to beat it in you"

"Is that something to be saying to someone who just got hospitalized?"

"I just have to break that illusion of yours Kami-yan!"

"Isn't that my line?!"

Even so, Touma stood up from his hospital bed to challenge Tsuchimikado. Fists came swinging at each other.

While this scene was something that would seem stupid to most people, this sort of thing was something familiar to Touma. And yet, he also felt some comfort from this. It had been a while since he had a scene like this with his friends to fight over stupid stuff.

* * *

"Damn it Tsuchimikado."

"Stop complaining Kami-yan, we got a cute nurse to break up our fight. And with your luck, she'll be in your harem in no time."

"How many times do I have to tell you I don't have a harem?"

Tsuchimikado chuckled. _Still the ever-loving dense guy huh?_

Tsuchimikado was sitting in the chair right by the bedside and Touma was back in his bed now.

"Well, since you were able to get up and fight me, it looks like you're just fine. You almost got me there for a second Kami-yan."

"Pfft, as if I'd ever get the best of you in hand-to-hand. Only time I was able to beat you was when-"

Touma stopped himself there for a second. He almost let the Agitate Halation incident slip from his mouth. He didn't know how Tsuchimikado would react to bringing up the incident again.

Touma looked over nervously at Tsuchimikado and saw that his expression didn't change and was still smiling.

"I, uhh, I think that one time in the classroom when-"

"You know, I never did get to thank you for saving my sister."

Tsuchimikado's expression turned into a more serious manner. It still seemed light-hearted but this was the Tsuchimikado he knew when he wanted to have a serious talk about things involving the magic and science side.

"Ehehehe." Touma scratched the back of his head.

"Don't worry about it Kami-yan. That just makes us even now from when I beat you up during the Angel Fall incident right?"

"I guess that's one way of putting it."

Tsuchimikado truly was grateful for Touma saving his step-sister. Even if he despaired at the time he saw him, he didn't doubt in the back of his mind that the hero known as Kamijou Touma would solve things.

"As I said, don't worry about it too much. Besides, we've gone through some worse stuff before right?"

"I don't know if that's supposed to be reassuring."

Tsuchimikado laughed.

"Well what about you huh? What you got yourself into recently was definitely quite a feat. Quite a big spectacle to see on global news." Tsuchimikado said, referencing to recent events.

Touma could only chuckle nervously at his implication.

"It wasn't really anything special."

"Nothing special? You took on the whole world."

"There was just a girl that needed to be saved and I extended my hand to her. I just did everything in my power to restore her smile." He said. Although there was a hint of nervousness that Tsuchimikado noticed in his tone.

 _How typical of Kami-yan. But it seems like there was definitely something else to the story._

"I'm sure there was more to it than that. There are some details missing from the report of what happened. If you don't mind me asking, I kind of want to know firsthand from you."

Tsuchimikado's demeanor changed to a serious tone, one that Touma knew very well. Looks like he was going to have that serious discussion with Tsuchimikado after all.

"Yea, that's alright. You can ask me what you want to know." Touma said.

Tsuchimikado smiled and leaned forward from his chair and rested his arms on his legs.

"Kami-yan, witnesses said that while you confronted the Leader of Gremlin, both of you suddenly disappeared. Then you returned all of a sudden declaring to protect the terrorist." Tsuchimikado said.

Touma honestly wasn't surprised at what he said. A lot of people questioned him in why he was protecting Othinus.

"Something happened in that instance you were gone from the world, didn't it?"

Touma remained silent for a while before responding. "Yeah, you could say that."

"So then tell me, what happened? Countless people wanted to know what happened for you to all of a sudden turn sides."

"It's kind of a long story..." How could he tell him about all of the worlds he experienced that Othinus put him through? "I don't know if you'd really believe me."

"Hmm, well I'm sure it was a good reason."

"Wait, you're not going to doubt me?"

"Why would I? You're one of my closest friends Kami-yan. If it's you, then you most definitely had a good reason." Those were Tsuchimikado's true feelings. For the time he's known Kamijou Touma, he had known him as one of the most honest people he'd ever known.

At his response, a small smile popped up on his face. He was glad to know that someone had some faith in him.

As if reading his mind, Tsuchimikado responded in his own mind. _A lot of people trust you more than you think Kami-yan._

But as Touma seemed to recall his experiences in the other worlds, his expression seemed to drop. _But would they really have faith me after what I did in that world?_

Tsuchimikado noticed the drop in his expression as well. Something definitely did happen to him.

"But that's not what I really wanted to know."

Touma looked at him confusedly. "Huh?"

"What I wanted to know was about you."

Touma was still confused. Was that question any different than what he had asked previously?

"As I said, you're one of my closest friends. And I can tell something is off with you."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a look in your eyes Kami-yan, a guilty look."

Touma gulped.

"If you don't want to tell me, it's completely fine."

"Well...I guess I can try to tell you what I saw."

"You sure Kami-yan?"

"Yeah...I'm sure." He did promise the Will he would talk to everyone about that world, he guessed this a chance to do so.

He let out a sigh.

"Othinus, she...when we disappeared, she actually destroyed the world, and I had been taken along with her because of Imagine Breaker. She recreated the world so many times in order to break me. And in that last world she created, she created the perfect world."

Tsuchimikado listened on.

"And for me to get back to this world...I...I had to destroy it all. I had to reject that world in order to get back here."

"Isn't it reasonable to want to come back?"

"But...it was such a perfect world where everyone was happy. And there was only one condition needed to keep it."

"And that was?"

"I just had to give my life in exchange. That should have been a no brainer decision right? After all, I couldn't possibly hold the life of one boy versus the lives of six billion. My life is definitely not worth all that much."

Suddenly he felt a pain on his head.

Tsuchimikado karate chopped Touma right in the middle of his spiky hair. He couldn't stand hearing him be so self-deprecating.

"Ouch!"

"Oi Kami-yan, what is it I'm listening to?"

"Wha-?"

"I feel there's something wrong with your logic here. How could you truly make the world happy if you sacrificed yourself? Just because a person told you to?"

Tsuchimikado stared at him straight through his sunglasses.

"I think many people would be sad if you disappeared from their lives."

"But-"

"No buts Kami-yan. This is just how it works. You may not think your life is worth much but I at the very least do."

Tsuchimikado let out his own sigh.

For him to say that he cared about a life aside from his sister was pretty significant. Tsuchimikado had been in the spy business long enough to normally not care about other people anymore. He had loads of encounters with many different people that had either ended up with them betraying him or them being betrayed by him, both from the Magic side and the Science side. It was an ugly thing to see but it was something that came with the job. He had become accustomed to that sort of setting. His magic name reflected perfectly his nature. Fallere825, the Backstabbing Blade.

But there was something different with the boy he encountered named Kamijou Touma. Kamijou Touma was a boy that was pretty straightforward with his intentions. He did not have to deceive anyone to resolve problems. In the dark side of the world he had worked in, Tsuchimikado had never seen any person that was as pure as he was.

When he had worked with Kamijou Touma, the boy had placed his faith in him with 100% confidence. Most would be wary of the spy but that boy had never doubted him. With such unconditional trust, Tsuchimikado was surprised at this newfound feeling. That feeling of having a friend.

"But everyone could surely live on happy without me!" Touma shouted out.

Tsuchimikado's glasses darkened.

"Kami-yan, you truly do not realize how many lives you have touched if you think you can make a statement like that."

Touma was taken aback by his tone.

"You may seem to be the only one that thinks that way. If you want to break that illusion of yours, then go ask everyone else for yourselves."

Touma was stunned for a while. He raised his head up and looked at Tsuchimikado.

"Then what about you? What do you think of me?"

Tsuchimikado put his arms behind his head.

"We've been through a lot of adventures together both on the Magic Side and the Science Side. We've fought together side by side so we could be considered comrades. But we also go to the same school and attend the same class. We hang out in the classroom so we could also just be considered classmates. But for me Kami-yan, I consider you my best friend."

"Huh?" Touma was surprised.

"You're my best friend Kami-yan. That's why I think that that other world where you're gone is bullshit. Happiest world my ass." Tsuchimikado said. "Kami-yan, you're one of the few people I can completely trust. Being in the spy business has taught me not to trust anyone and yet, I feel you're one I can trust. But not only that, the times we've had hanging out together in school and outside of it...those are fun times I cherish with you. Those times sometimes makes me forget that I'm this guy gets caught up in the darkness for both the Magic and Science sides. It makes me feel like a normal high school boy. The days that pass by makes me want to hang out with my closest friends. And one of those people is you."

Touma stared up at Tsuchimikado. He looked at the boy but he couldn't see his eyes through his glasses. He took in the statement of what he had just told him, and it didn't sound like Tsuchimikado was lying like the spy he was. It felt like he said it from the bottom of his heart.

"You shouldn't be feeling sorry for what transpired. If anything, I should be the one that's sorry."

That surprised Touma. "Huh? What for?"

"Honestly Kami-yan, I feel guilty over all of the things you've gone through."

"Why would you need to feel guilty for that?"

"I told you a while back Kami-yan. I've known all about the events you get yourself into and yet I couldn't do anything to help you throughout those times."

"And I think that I told you a while back, that you didn't need to worry about that."

"But I failed to prevent you from getting dragged into everything. If only I could have done better, then you would have never had to gone through everything that's happened to you."

"Tsuchimikado...it's alright. I don't regret getting caught up in everything that's happened. It's allowed me to save people and regretting about that is something I would never do."

 _Of course he wouldn't regret it over stuff like that._ Tsuchimikado thought.

"Something like that is definitely you Kami-yan." He said smiling. "But if there's another thing you shouldn't regret about, you shouldn't regret about that world."

"..."

"You've got my opinion Kami-yan, but you should definitely tell other people about this and see for yourself that you're much more cherished than what you think you're worth."

"..." Touma continued to remain in silence.

Tsuchimikado let out a sigh. "Heh. Well, I guess I better get going then."

Tsuchimikado got up from his chair and made his way towards the door.

"Tsuchimikado!"

The blonde-haired boy turned around.

"Thanks." The spiky-haired boy said.

Tsuchimikado looked at the boy and saw that he had a genuine smile on his face.

Tsuchimikado smiled himself. "We'll settle our previous issue earlier about girls. We need to talk to Aogami and see what he has to say about it."

Touma recalled the earlier fight he had with Tsuchimikado at the beginning of his visit. "He'll definitely agree with me!"

"The guy loves almost everything, but I'm sure he'll agree with me those that love little sisters have superior taste!"

"Nuh-uh, Aogami's fetishes most definitely lean towards mine!"

"I guess we'll just have to see about that!"

"Yeah, I guess we will!"

Touma and Tsuchimikado stared down at each other. Their eyes narrowing. Serious expressions on their face.

After being silent and staying in their positions, their serious expressions started dropping and they both started chuckling and then eventually burst out into laughing.

After the laughter died down, Touma let out a content sigh.

"I guess I'll see you later at school Tsuchimikado." He said to him.

"Yeah, I'll see you back in Komoe-sensei's classroom." Tsuchimikado said as he smiled.

He turned around and made his way out of the door to his hospital room.

But before shutting the door behind him, he turned his head around to look back at him. "Remember the little sister character is always the best! I'm sure you'd enjoy having a little sister!"

"As if you damn sis-con!"

Tsuchimikado left the hospital room and the door closed behind him.

Touma smiled. This was definitely one of the things he wanted to return to his original world for. It was worth it to be able to go to school and hang out with his best friends and argue over stupid stuff.

* * *

"Leivinia? Where are you going?"

"I'm just going on a little trip. I'll be back some time later."

"Alright...well I hope you enjoy wherever it is you're going to."

"Don't worry, it's just some business I need to attend to."

"Are you sure you don't want to take Mark with you?"

"Nah, this is something that I can handle perfectly fine by myself."

* * *

 **Author's note: Well, as you can tell by that ending, the next chapter is going to be for Leivinia Birdway! Dedicated to best imouto's appearance in NT14.  
**

 **This chapter was somewhat more light-hearted than the other chapters but I felt like it fit Tsuchimikado's relationship with Touma very well. I hope you guys enjoyed it.  
**

 **After writing 2 chapters in a row for this story, the next thing I'm going to write is for my other story so the next chapter might not be for a while.**


	6. Leivinia Birdway

**Hey guys, I hope yall had a good Christmas and New Year's.**

 **Here's the Leivinia Birdway chapter starting off the year of 2016 for me in fanfiction. I had really wished I could have released this sooner but college finals and the holidays took me away from that. But anyways, on to my thoughts.  
**

 **I really love Birdway's character and the interactions she's had with Touma. I liked the influence she had on him during the first half of New Testament where she was pretty much the cause of all of his development after Hawaii. If you think about it, she really understands Touma deeply more than most other characters. That was why she was able to manipulate him in the first place. But not only that, she also really understands Touma's most prominent trait of trying to save everyone. Examples of that such as when she confronted him in NT10 and understood him and his situation more easily than all of the others and let him go. Or even in the recent volume in NT14 where she withheld the information of herself being at risk because she knew he would worry. Their dynamic together is also pretty fun. She's basically best imouto.  
**

 **I was pretty glad that we got to see her get involved in the story again with NT14. I'm hoping that she sticks around for the next couple of volumes, which seems pretty possible given the ending of NT14. I actually secretly hope that maybe she'll become Touma's 3rd major companion since she's pretty much been a major character through most of New Testament. But I can only dream.**

 **NT14 also gave us some more exposition on Touma's character as well now that he's had to face someone who is pretty much in the same situation as he was in. One line in particular stood out to me. It was the one where it said Touma said that Kamisato hadn't yet realized he was beloved by people and it was ironic because he hasn't realized it either. I liked that line because it was kind of in line with the premise for this fic where Touma really undervalues how much he truly is loved by his friends.  
**

 **Anyways, with all those thoughts aside, hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**

 **Also, Birdway character tag where?!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index**

* * *

The lights of Academy City came in through the view of a window in a plane.

A girl peered out as she watched the city of science come closer to her view. This girl was Leivinia Birdway.

Using the resources she had as the leader of the largest magic cabal the Dawn-Colored Sunlight, she had taken a private plane in order to travel to Academy City. It wasn't like she could have taken normal means to get into the City anyway, especially since she was a high profile magician.

Now why was she visiting Academy City?

Birdway leaned on her hand. She thought over the reason why she was coming to this city. She wanted to see a certain boy that lived in this very city. A boy named Kamijou Touma.

After causing a big disturbance back in Denmark over the issue of the Magic God Othinus, the boy had managed to actually resolve that whole ordeal. It was a very impressive feat, and yet, Birdway was somehow not surprised that he had managed to save her.

She just knew that that boy would be able to do it, that was she believed when she saw him back in Denmark.

And that was why she was headed to Academy City now, that was the last time she had saw him. She wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but she wanted to visit him to check up if he was okay. Along with that, she had a couple of questions to ask him.

She sighed as she leaned back into her chair and recalled back to when she was in Denmark.

* * *

 _"Let me go!" Index shouted as Birdway still held onto her legs from the ground._

 _"I can't do that."_

 _"But we need still need to talk to Touma!"_

 _"Just let him go."_

 _"Why are you letting him leave? I thought we came here to stop him!"_

 _"Hmph, I figured out what it was he was doing. Besides, don't you trust him?  
_

 _"I do..but..."_

 _"Then it's fine."_

* * *

Touma was currently laying down in his hospital bed and sleeping. In his sleep, all he could see was darkness as his eyes lay shut and closed. His mind had shut down and relaxed as he slept. But even in his sleep, he still had some subconscious awareness.

Suddenly he felt a disruption in his comfortable position while sleeping. It felt as if a pressure was now pushing down on his body. He could feel the pressure starting at his chest and soon spreading over the rest of his body.

 _What's going on?_ He subconsciously thought.

The pressure seemed to step pressing down but the weight persisted. It now felt as if there was just something laying on top of him.

His eyes had begun to slowly open. As he began to wake up, a couple of his senses were alerted that there was something wrong.

First off was the pressure he felt while he was still asleep had remained.

Second was a nice smell that entered his nostrils.

Third was the sound of soft breathing.

And the last sense that was affected was his sight. In his eyes he could see fluffy blonde hair right on top of his chest. As he took a closer look, he could see that the form resembled a familiar girl he knew named Leivinia Birdway.

 _W-what is this familiar scene?!_ Touma thought as he recalled the instance he woke up to Lessar and Birdway in his bathtub back at his apartment. _What is she doing here?!_

He lifted his head up and looked down in surprise at Birdway laying down on his chest.

While Touma had a nervous, surprised look of disbelief at the scene, you could say that Birdway's expression was the exact opposite.

Her eyes were still closed as she was still sleeping. She was lightly breathing as she inhaled and exhaled in her sleep. But the most surprising feature of all was the expression on her face. Birdway had a smile on her face. It wasn't like her usual sadistic smiles, it was one that seemed content. To compliment it, her face looked very relaxed as her head laid on its side on top of his chest.

If he didn't know her personally, he would have thought that she was a very cute little girl. Experience otherwise told him otherwise though that

Not only that, it seemed like she was tightly gripping her arms around his body. As if he was like some teddy bear to her.

 _I need to get out of this situation again!  
_

As if she could read his thoughts, she challenged his prospects and moved around in her sleep. She rolled her body over until she was laying back onto him.

Now he was even more restricted. If he tried to move his body at all, then surely she would be able to feel the shifting right below her. Actually, he didn't even know why he would try to move. This was his hospital bed that he was supposed to be sleeping and recovering in.

Maybe he could try to move her off of him? While he didn't like the idea of handling someone as dangerous as her, maybe he could be able to gently move her away without her waking up.

Touma tried to shuffle his arms out from underneath and spread them out. He motioned to try to grab Birdway from the side where he would try to hold her, inch out from underneath her, lift her, and move her off to the side.

"No...no...this jetlag is still killing me. Let me keep sleeping." Birdway muttered as he tried to move her.

As his hands tried to grab ahold of her, she did something he didn't expect. While still sleeping, she moved both of her arms to each of his arms that were trying to grab her from the side and instead grabbed onto them and wrapped them around her. Her arms remained in position to keep them in place.

 _What is this development?!  
_

The new position they were in looked like as if Touma was holding and hugging Birdway from behind now. He tried to pull his arms away, but that only caused Birdway to grip onto his arms stronger.

 _I can feel her strength. She's not letting me gooooooo._

Since he couldn't get his arms back, he came up with another plan. He would roll his body over to on its side so that Birdway's body wouldn't be on top of him and then maybe he could slip away.

He set his plan in motion as he lifted the left side of his body so that he would end up on his right side. Touma found that Birdway was actually a very light girl as he lifted her along with him. Now they were in a more precarious position as they looked like they were spooning. But since Birdway was smaller than him, you would think that it was more of an adorable scene.

All he needed to do now was try to slip his arm away from underneath her.

The sound of a door opening came to his ears. "Excuse me, I was informed that a visitor came in here-" The voice rang out and stopped.

It was one of the nurses in the hospital. She saw the current scene and didn't know how to react. Touma on the other hand was panicking and shaking his head as if to say 'This isn't what it looks like!'. The shaking of his body was also stirring up Birdway who was still in his arms.

"Hmmph...onii-chan... is warm..." She said in her sleep.

Both the nurse and Touma flared up at her words. _Onii-chan?!_

Birdway wiggled a little bit in his arms before settling down again and sleeping.

"I'm sorry, I'll leave you two." The nurse said before she backed out of the room and closed the door.

"Fukou daaaa." He let out.

"...Shut up...you idiot...trying to sleep..." Birdway muttered.

Touma let out an internal sigh. He relented from trying to escape since he had not been able to escape Birdway's grasp.

At this point, he started to feel his own eyes begin to droop as he suddenly felt difficulty keep them open. Since Birdway had interrupted his sleep in the first place, he did not have his full energy. He let himself go to the need to rest. Even with the difficulty of falling back to sleep due to Birdway's hair being nestled in front of his face, his consciousness began to fade.

* * *

Touma slowly opened his eyes as he began to wake up again. There was one thing he noticed as his consciousness returned to him. There was originally a person that was supposedly right next to him in the bed and now was gone.

As his vision returned, he turned his head and could see that the person of question was still there. Birdway was now sitting in the chair right next to his bed. She was stretching her arms out and yawning.

"That was a pretty good sleep if I do say so myself."

Touma pushed himself up off his bed to turn his attention to her as he rubbed his eyes.

"Birdway?"

"Hmm?" Birdway turned over to him. "Well, look who's awake."

"When did you wake up?"

"Just a little bit ago, the position I found myself waking up in was questionable but yet very warm."

"Why are you getting comfortable with these sort of positions?!"

"Don't blame me, blame the fatigue I obtained from jetlag traveling here."

She crossed her arms and had a calm expression on her face. He was actually surprised that Birdway didn't try to harm him after waking up. Even though she was the one that crawled into the bed with him, he just somehow felt blame would be pinned on him.

Touma let out a sigh. "What are you even doing here Birdway?" Touma said questioningly.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Birdway responded haughtily.

"Uhh, I don't really know, that's why I asked."

"I would think that even someone like you could figure out the reason why I would visit someone in the hospital."

"What? How would I know why you're here?"

A little tick appeared on Birdway's forehead at his response.

"Tch, it doesn't matter. Just be glad that I'm here to visit you." She said as she turned her head.

The underlying meaning in that statement was her saying that she was actually worried about his well-being, but she would never tell him that directly.

Leivinia could briefly recall an encounter with Ollerus and his group in Denmark in the aftermath of the situation. Apparently Touma had encountered his group right after he had encountered her. She had talked with them, and she could remember some particular irksome words that came from Silvia. " _I'm sorry I beat up your big brother Birdway-chan. Maybe you should check up on him to make sure he's okay like a good little sister you are."_

Birdway could feel a tick mark appearing on her forehead and her expression getting angry as she shut her eyes and scowled at that memory. Touma noticed it too and felt like he should answer the question so she wouldn't get even more angry.

He wasn't sure if he should have been glad that she was here.

"Thanks, I guess..." Touma sweatdropped.

"*Sigh* If you really want to know, I'm obviously here to check up on what happened after that whole situation in Denmark." Birdway said as she turned back over to look at him with a serious expression. "I believe you owe me an explanation after letting you go back then."

"I guess I do." Touma said scratching the back of his head. "Well I think that everything turned out as best as I could hope. As you can see, I'm still alive and Othinus is still alive as well." He responded.

"So I guess you were able to achieve your objective of saving this 'girl' then?"

"Yes. At the end of it all, she lost most of her power and was given her punishment."

Birdway put her hand underneath her chin.

"Hmm, so I guess my decision to let you go wasn't a wrong choice after all."

Touma smiled.

"You know, I still need to thank you for that."

A surprised look suddenly appeared on Birdway's face at his statement.

"What for?"

"Back in Denmark, you seemed very understanding of the situation. You just let us go and placed your trust in me."

"I know and understand you very well more than most other people. I had a feeling you were just caught up in something only you would do. Back then I did say you would owe me for that."

"Hahaha..." Touma said rubbing the back of head.

"If you really want to thank me, then oblige me with one thing."

"What is it?"

"I know I was very accepting of the Othinus situation, but the one I want to know is what happened in that instance you were gone that caused you to turn sides." Birdway crossed her arms. "I believe now is as good a time as any to tell about what happened. You were pressured under the conditions you were in at Denmark. But now that we're here, we've got all the time in the world."

Another thought flashed into her mind. She was recalling the memory of that New Light magician named Lessar teasing her back at the Sargasso after Touma had disappeared with Othinus. _"Hee hee hee. Are you upset that your precious big bro was taken from you?"_

And again a tick mark appeared on her head. It was indeed surprising to her that the boy she had been working closely with all of a sudden would go out to help the world's greatest enemy. He had given her the lowdown over in Denmark as best he could about the circumstances, but she knew there was more to the story in that time they were gone. It had to have been very significant from what she could tell when she looked into his eyes back then.

Touma also noticed her inquisitive look.

"Some things happened...But you could say that me and Othinus came to an understanding."

"An understanding huh?"

Touma nodded.

"Hmm, that may be true, but I don't think something like that came as simple as you've told me. Something else happened didn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Touma said with a confused look.

"Don't take me for a fool. Obviously something more had happened in wherever you went off to, I saw it in your eyes." Birdway said as she pressed her face forward towards him. "A look of guilt."

Touma grew nervous as she leaned in on him. The words Birdway said triggered something within him. He could feel sweat about to run down his face. He knew exactly the cause of it.

The Omega World. The world of happiness he had destroyed.

Birdway leaned back away. She definitely noticed the change in his demeanor.

"Now I won't force you to tell me, but I do believe this whole process will definitely be much easier if you just tell me."

Touma turned his head away from her to the side. He could still feel Birdway still staring intently at him in the side of his head.

'Should I tell her?' was the question that run through his mind. She and him had come to an understanding during the Ichihanaransai that they would each do what was best for the world. 'What would she think about him destroying that world?' was the question that caused doubt in his mind.

But even at his hesitation, the words of the Will echoed in his mind. They were telling him that he needed to tell everyone what happened back then if he wanted their forgiveness. The next step that he had to face now was Birdway.

"You're right, something did happen..." Touma said as he turned his head back to her.

Birdway's piercing eyes softened up at seeing him let go of his reluctance. She sat with opened ears as she waited for him to continue.

He let out a sigh before he started. A melancholic look popped up onto his face.

"In that time we were gone, the world was actually destroyed by Othinus. But as she was able to destroy the world, she was able to remake it as well. She threw me through many worlds that she remade. But..."

Touma paused.

"There was one world, one certain world that she showed me..." Touma gripped the bedsheet around him tightly as he crunched his fists. "Othinus had created the perfect world. It was this world where everyone was happy."

"So what? Obviously that world was just a fake made by Othinus." Birdway interjected.

"No...It was all real. The power she had made everything that was there real." Touma said shaking his head.

"It was essentially a world where Othinus had saved everyone and they all had smiles on their faces. But...in order for me to come back to this world I...I had to destroy it all!" Touma's voice raised at the last segment. "Everyone in that world was happy! That world had the best outcomes for everyone and I had to just go and tear it all down and steal it away from them!" He then stopped as his head faced down in what seemed to be frustration.

Birdway took notice of his pause and frowned. The silence persisted in the air for a little while before he began to continue.

"There was just one condition needed to keep that world...All I had to do was give up my life for it."

Birdway's form flinched at his statement.

"I pitted the lives of everyone else in the world against my single life. What I did was incredibly selfish, and I can't forgive myself for doing that. I could have saved everyone with that but I didn't I should have just gone through with it, I-"

*Slap*

"What are you saying..."

Birdway had her right arm extended. Touma had recoiled back from the slap she gave him. He turned back to her with a hand on his cheek to answer her question.

"I'm saying that everything was my fault."

Birdway lowered her arm and took a step back. She had her head tilted down. A shadow covered over her eyes. Her mouth suddenly changing from it's frown into clenched teeth. Her hands right by her sides clenched into fists.

"You...you idiot!" Birdway exclaimed as she lifted her head up at him.

Touma was taken aback at her exclamation.

"You blame yourself for this whole situation? I know this is something that I should have expected from you but I still can't wrap my head around how you can take it to this extent!"

"But it really was my fault! I even told to you Birdway that I would offer up my flesh to save everyone." Touma said. Birdway did indeed remember those words they exchanged during the Ichihanaransai. "I didn't follow through with my words which makes me nothing more than a hypocrite!"

"Whatever it is you said to me doesn't matter. Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself?!"

"How can I place my life above the lives of everyone else's?!"

"Do you not care about your own life?!"

"I can't after what I've done! I can only blame myself for everything that's happened to me."

"If there's anyone to blame for what's happened to you it should be me!" Birdway yelled at him

Touma was taken aback by that statement. _What?_ He thought to himself.

"Everything that's happened to you that lead up to this point, it's all my fault! I was the one that started the chain of events that happened to you when I saved you from the ocean! I was the one that manipulated you into coming to Hawaii! I was also the one that betrayed you at Hawaii! I was the one that was the cause behind the events at Baggage City! I was the one that caused you to be shot during the Ichihanaransai! I was the one that opposed you on the issue of Fraulein Kreutune! I was the one that utilized you as bait and as a tool against GREMLIN! If there's anyone that should be blamed for everything you've gone through it should be me-"

Birdway stopped and cut her sentence.

What had interrupted her abruptly was a hand. Kamijou Touma's right hand had been placed on her head.

"Birdway..."

Touma didn't say anything more and neither did Birdway as his hand laid on her head.

Touma didn't know how to feel about this. He was very sure to himself that everything that had happened had been his fault. And yet, Birdway was trying to tear down that ideal of his.

After a couple of more moments of silence, Birdway continued.

"I don't know how you can place blame on yourself but not me..."

"I've already forgiven you for all of that."

Birdway looked up at him with shaking eyes.

"Why?"

"I told you back during the Ichihanaransai didn't I? I know that everything that you do, you try to do what you think is the best for the world. All of those things you did you did in consideration of what you thought was the best choice, and I can't fault you for that."

Birdway drooped her head down.

"Idiot...I'm the one trying to console you and you're the one that's consoling me."

"I appreciate what you're trying to do though." Touma said as he melancholy smiled. "I meant everything that I said during our fight. You're the hardest working girl I know that tries your best."

Touma's melancholic smile then dropped down back into a frown. "But I can't say that you're the one to blame for my actions back in that Omega World. That was out of my own volition. It feels unfair to drop that fault onto you."

"*Sigh* I guess that's just the way you are." Birdway said. "You truly do try to take on the weight of the world. I don't know whether to admire your heroics, or berate you for being an idiot."

She moved out from underneath his hand and Touma pulled his hand back to him.

"But...even if you don't value your life as much, there are others that do." Birdway turned her head to the side. _"Including me."_ She muttered.

She said it in hopes that he wouldn't hear that, but he caught her words.

Touma was honestly taken aback from everything she's said to him. His predisposition of her had not allowed him to believe what she just said. To him, she was the sadistic boss of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight. She was the one that was merciless to anyone that got in her way. She was the one that did not care about the lives those that worked underneath her if it was deemed necessary. He even said to her himself that she could use and think of him as nothing more than a tool to be used. To hear her say that she cared for his wellbeing was bizarre, and also pretty significant.

"You've done more than enough that you've needed to for this world and for most people. I've seen you do that ever since I met you all that time ago here in this city where you swept me off my feet. You need to understand that you affect others more than what you think, you really do undervalue yourself very so." Birdway said with her usual demeanor. "There's nothing more I can say than that. But I do think that you need to get that through your thick idiotic skull before I have to beat it into you."

Touma could only sit in silence as he absorbed the words she gave him.

Birdway sighed. "With all of that said, I guess that settles my business with you. I think I'll go visit that Index back at your apartment before I return to England." Birdway said as she started to turn to walk out.

"Birdway."

Birdway turned around back at him before she took a step, only to find his hand on her head for a second time.

"Thanks." Touma said as he patted and rubbed her head.

Birdway blushed. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the feeling of his hand on her head was very nice.

* * *

Next Chapter: Kanzaki Kaori


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